Large and medium-sized cities in the Netherlands will face a total budget shortage of around 500 million euros in the next four years, according to the G40, a network of the Netherlands' 40 largest municipalities. Cuts to public facilities are inevitable, Paul Depla, mayor of Breda and chairman of the G40, said to newspaper AD.
Paul Depla
Sep 16 '19 09:01
Jun 14 '19 17:30
A total of 26 municipalities signed up for the government's experiment with regulated cannabis cultivation. Utrecht is the only one of the Netherlands' four large cities that signed up.
Jun 12 '19 07:47
Amateur football clubs are an asset for criminals, who use them for money laundering, drug dealing, and creating an image of prestige and power in a neighborhood or town, according to a recent study by Tilburg University. Five football clubs from Zeeland and Noord-Brabant suspect that criminals are trying to infiltrate their club, according to the researchers, AD reports.
Apr 11 '19 11:10
A few hundred people gathered in the Breda neighborhood of Tuinzigt on Wednesday to commemorate Ger van Zundert. The 49-year-old Breda man died in hospital on Tuesday morning after he was tied up and set on fire in a garage on Sparrenweg on Monday night. A suspect turned himself in on Tuesday.
Dec 17 '18 07:31
GroenLinks wants ecstasy to be removed from criminal hands by having the government regulate the drug's production, parliamentarian Kathalijne Buitenweg said to the Volkskrant.
"The government does not have to make the pills itself, but the government must want to take control", she said to the newspaper. She recommends a permit system with controlled production, so that only pills that meet quality requirements are available. "I say it because of public health, but also because we have to do something about the frighteningly growing power of criminals."
Nov 26 '18 09:10
Two men were injured in a shooting in a home on Amerstraat in Breda on Saturday. Mayor Paul Depla ordered the home locked down on Sunday after an amount of soft drugs was also found in the home, ANP reports.
Nov 23 '18 08:39
Many Dutch municipalities are dissatisfied with the current preliminary design of the government's experiment with regulated cannabis cultivation. Where municipalities queued to participate in the experiment when it was announced, the government will now have difficulty in finding 10 municipalities to participate, the association of Dutch municipalities VNG said to Trouw.
Nov 6 '18 08:38
31 mayors of larger Dutch cities are calling on the Senate not to remove the appointment of mayors from the Dutch constitution, and to keep the procedure as is. Removing the appointment procedure from the constitution is the first step in enabling an elected mayor. The mayors are worried that this will result in them losing their connecting role as "father or mother for all residents, businesses and institutions", they wrote in an open letter to the Senate, the Volkskrant reports.
Apr 16 '18 10:40
A man shot and killed in Breda last Sunday, was killed in a rip-deal, Breda mayor Paul Depla confirmed on television program NieuwLicht. The victim was identified as 26-year-ld Kaan Safranti, Omroep Brabant reports.
A rip-deal is a criminal transaction, usually a drug deal, in which one party tries to make off with both the product and the money. Depla also said that the man was shot in the head.
Nov 28 '17 15:00
The Breda police arrested a 24-year-old man for involvement in his 7-month-old son's death last week, RTL Nieuws reports.
Emergency services responded to the young family's home last week Sunday. The baby boy was admitted to hospital in a critical condition. He died the next day. An autopsy revealed that he did not die of natural causes. A team of 20 detectives were put on the case.
Nov 7 '17 15:50
A total of 25 municipalities have signed up so far to take part in the Rutte III government's experiment with regulated cannabis cultivation, NOS reports. The government wants to start the experiment next year by letting eight to ten municipalities regulate the marijuana cultivation for their regions.
Jun 20 '17 09:44
If the PvdA wants to survive, it must spend the coming years changing from a classic management party to a broad public movement that stands with and for the people, Labour party celebrity Paul Depla said in a report on the party's future, ANP reports.
The party asked Depla, a prominent PvdA member and mayor of Breda, to investigate how the party could overcome the loss of 29 seats in the last parliamentary election. Depla did so by speaking with hundreds of people, both in and outside of the party, to come up wth what he calls "future recommendations".
Jul 9 '16 11:17
Thirteen PvdA mayors called on their colleague Ahmed Aboutaleb to run for PvdA leadership. "The party needs you", the mayors wrote in an open letter addressed to the Rotterdam Mayor in the Volkskrant on Saturday.
May 10 '16 09:26
The Netherlands suffered "great reputation damage" by giving back the organization of the 2019 European Games, the Depla-commission concludes in a report on the matter. The report was presented to the Dutch Olympic Committee NOC*NSF on Monday
Nov 12 '15 16:51
Investigators in Breda evacuated 12 homes after discovering “possibly explosive materials” in an apartment Thursday afternoon, the police said on Twitter. A 69-year-old man was taken into custody at the flat.
Jul 16 '15 12:00
GroenLinks pulled out of the Breda city council coalition on Wednesday night, thereby collapsing the coalition. The VVD faction in the city is now looking for other elected parties to form a new coalition
Mar 6 '14 13:47
more than 100 party front-runners of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) have spoken out against the marijuana regulation.
Feb 28 '14 09:46
Corps leaders of the National Police are against the legalization of Marijuana cultivation. They fear that criminals will attack the legal farms "with extreme violence."
