Opinions on the minutes of the residents' evening meeting on November 29, 2023

Opinion of the municipality of West Maas en Waal

General review

The meeting on November 29, 2023, was constructive and open, but at the same time confrontational and emotionally charged. Extensive consideration was given to images of and the actual role of the village platform, the impact of the lack of housing construction, and what this has done to mutual relations.

As a municipality, we find it genuinely worrying and sad that discussions and divisions have arisen between people within the village. We are also critical of our own role in this context. We recognize that in the past we should have done things differently or better in terms of communication, visibility, and participation. We have also asked too much of the village platform in this regard. For example, within the Village Passport project. This has unintentionally led residents to believe that the village platform is jointly responsible or has a say in the choices made in and for Altforst. This is despite the fact that it 'only' has a facilitating and connecting role within the village.

The council, represented by Alderman Reuvers, has apologized for this. It has also been agreed that the municipality will take responsibility for communication and participation in the event of major (spatial) developments in the village. The village platform will focus on promoting, facilitating, and connecting activities in Altforst.

Response to the report

The report provides a good summary of the conversation. In our opinion, there are a few points that require clarification, response, or additional information:

• General comment: readability can be improved by using shorter sentences. In addition, a spell check is recommended.
• Role of the village platform: some passages are difficult to read. For example, the last paragraph on page 1. The first paragraph also needs to be clarified. It should be stated more clearly who is responsible. In our opinion, the phrase "possible mixing" should be replaced by "presumed mixing." The phrase "the state of affairs surrounding the Village Platform"; should this not be Village Passport?
• Village Deal: it is claimed that the JVA and the carnival association are not properly involved in the Village Deal. We partly agree with this. The JVA is one of the parties that signed the Village Deal. We acknowledge that the carnival association's involvement could have been better. The carnival association has now been directly involved in the Village Deal for some time and is a valued member of the Village Deal project group.
• Additionally, during the meeting, the municipality indicated that residents with questions or concerns can contact the municipality (civil service and administrative) or Peter van Drielen of STeuN. It is important that residents make use of this opportunity to address questions, concerns, or frustrations or to discuss them. The call is to make these kinds of issues discussable and not to let them simmer in Altforst.