Give more power to neighbourhoods: Labour

According to the PvdA, residents should have more say over their neighborhoods. According to PvdA Parliament Member Grace Tanamal, enterprising residents often run up against the wall of bureaucracy and unwilling officials. "The government is demanding more from citizens, for example in healthcare. I think that they should also give them more rights." "I'm super excited about what people do for their environment," says Tanamal. She has spent a year visiting towns and cities, where citizens refurbish old school buildings, organize markets and maintain the greenery in the district themselves. "People do a lot more themselves than I thought." The PvdA wants Minister Plasterk (Internal Affairs) to designate municipalities to experiment with neighborhood rights. There is a good chance that he will support this plan. Tanamal wants to give residents three "neighborhood rights". Firstly, citizens are allowed to compete as a collective in procurement, for example, to care for the greenery themselves for a fee. They will also have the right to make the first offer on wasteland and municipal property. And they may put forward proposals in the zoning. Tanamal stresses that it will not be compulsory for residents to pick up debris in their neighborhood. "It is also not a way to cut back. If you don't want to, the government must continue doing it. But in disadvantaged neighborhood with high unemployment, you see all kinds of opportunities arise."