A large majority of the Waalre town council has approved the new administrative agreement for the coming years. The program was written by CDA (christian democrats), VVD (people’s party for freedom and democracy), GroenLinks (green left party), D66 (democrats) and PvdA (labour party).
The five parties naturally supported the agreement Tuesday night. The plans also received support from ZW14. The other local party in Waalre, AWB, turned out to be the only fraction that did not agree. With that, the outcome of the vote was clear: 13 in favour versus 3 against.
Residential construction and solar energy
The content of the agreement had already been announced earlier. Among other things, it pays attention to the accelerated construction of homes in Waalre-Noord and Ekenrooi-Zuid and to ensuring a stable administration, after years of administrative malaise. There are also plans for the generation of large-scale solar energy.
‘Good atmosphere’
“We tried to involve all parties as much as possible”, D66 leader, Floris Schoots, says about how the program came about. Other parties also emphasized that the atmosphere was good when writing the agreement, with all groups having input, something that is not a given in Waalre. “The local parties, AWB and ZW14, did not co-write, but they did participate in the discussion”, PvdA party chairman, Janpeter Hazelaar, says.
Ambitions
Not only was there support for the process, but also for the content of the program. “It has become a beautiful document with clear ambitions. It is a good basis for building on in the coming years”, Daan Damen of the VVD emphasized.
Water with wine
Yet one party proved less happy with the outcome of months of negotiations and discussions, behind closed doors. “The mutual relationships in the city council are again confirmed with this agreement. The five parties that have written this program trust each other above all, and had to compromise on the content”, AWB group chairman, Jo Claessen, explained. “We do not recognise ourselves sufficiently in this agreement. Too little ambition in the area of social housing and a hefty increase in ozb (real estate tax) during rising prices”.
Next Thursday, a new team of Aldermen will be sworn in. It is not yet known who the new councilors will be.
Source: Studio040
Translated by: Bob
