Less fireworks damage in Dutch municipalities than last year

This past New Year's Eve, significantly fewer trash cans, lampposts, benches and other municipal property were damaged than the year before. And this was despite the fact that in most places people were allowed to set off fireworks themselves for the first time in years. That's the first impression from an ANP tour of about 160 of the 342 municipalities in the Netherlands.

So far, about 90 municipalities have assessed the damage. In total, almost 1 million euros worth of damage was caused there last New Year's Eve. In the same municipalities last year, the bill was almost 1.5 million euros. In about 20 municipalities however, there was more damage than in the previous year, and costs decreased in more than 50 municipalities.

About 60 municipalities are still in the process of assessing the damage and therefore cannot yet provide information on the amount of damage. Among them are cities such as Rotterdam (350,000 euros in damage last year) and The Hague (465,000 euros last year). Damage is also still being assessed in cities such as Utrecht, Eindhoven, Breda, Nijmegen, Apeldoorn, Haarlem, Enschede, Zwolle, Zoetermeer, Leiden and Delft.

Overall, Amsterdam has the highest costs at the moment. In the Dutch capital, damage amounted to 217,400 euros. According to the municipality, 66 garbage cans, 43 container pits, 23 underground and 12 above-ground containers, 15 parking meters, 25 bus shelters, 41 traffic signs, two street signs and a bench were damaged. However, this is less than last year, when the damage amounted to more than 260,000 euros.

In Hellendoorn in the province of Overijssel, the damage almost doubled from 14,500 euros to 28,500 euros."Especially the replacement of complete playground equipment is a big expense," the municipality informed.

In the neighboring municipality of Rijssen-Holten, the bill also rose from nearly 12,500 euros to more than 27,000 euros. In addition, Zutphen now has a damage of almost 30,000 euros, compared to over 20,000 euros last year.

Pijnacker-Nootdorp, however, saw the biggest drop in spending. The municipality of Zuid-Holland had one of the highest bills in the country last year, after the major cities. The damage at that time amounted to 64,475 euros. But the price now dropped to 19,500 euros. The fact that the damage was so high last year was due to vandals destroying a sports park. Fences, dugouts, an artificial turf pitch and playground equipment were vandalized and had to be replaced.

Also Nunspeet (from 45,000 to 4,000 euros), Oss (from 60,260 to 25,703 euros) and Dordrecht (from 51,600 to 19,600 euros) now have significantly less damage to repair.

In Staphorst, damage on New Year's Eve amounted to just 500 euros. "Apart from a single traffic sign, nothing was destroyed," according to the city council. A year earlier, Staphorst saw damage of 20,000 euros throughout December. According to the municipality, this month was troubled "because of the coronavirus and the ban on fireworks".

Roosendaal, however, did not assess the damage. A spokesperson for the municipality of Brabant explained, "It is a misconception to expect a municipality to check all traffic signs, wastebaskets, bus shelters, playgrounds, and other street furniture for damage on New Year's Eve, only to conduct another check on New Year's Day. This is not a realistic expectation. Any amount mentioned would be debatable.”