Outgoing Minister Ollongren of the Interior is pulling the plug on the Scherpenzeel-Barneveld reclassification. She announced this in a letter to the provincial government of Gelderland. He wanted to merge the municipalities of Scherpenzeel and Barneveld.
According to Ollongren, there is insufficient support and Scherpenzeel can still stand on its own two feet. Scherpenzeel has “addressed the administrative power problems with more urgency”, the minister wrote to the Provincial Council.
The municipality of Scherpenzeel, the second smallest municipality in Gelderland with approximately 10,000 inhabitants, has always opposed a reclassification with Barneveld, writes Broadcasting Gelderland. Also outgoing minister Ollongren is now not going along with the wish of the province to merge Scherpenzeel and Barneveld.
To care
In order to legitimize the merger, Scherpenzeel would have to contend with insoluble management problems, the minister writes. “But that’s not the case at the moment.” There is also too little support for the reclassification, according to Ollongren.
The minister does call Scherpenzeel vulnerable and she urges the municipal council to cooperate more intensively with municipalities in the region, including Barneveld.
Ollongren establishes that Scherpenzeel has structural extra money for the first time in years to strengthen the official organization. The municipality has also developed a so-called cooperation strategy, with Barneveld as the preferred partner. “It is very likely that this reinforcement will require a more intensive form of cooperation with Barneveld, but not necessarily a reclassification.”
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