Both parties believe that this course of action strongly tends towards ‘preferential treatment’ by the municipality. Regrettable, according to the CDA. “In similar cases, this would lead to serious sanctions for other tenants”, the parties suggest in written questions to the college.
Rollback
The CDA goes so far as to demand that the municipality’s policy of tolerance ‘must be reversed immediately’. Whether that subsequently means that the CDA wants sanctions to follow immediately remains unclear.
Asser tenants raised the alarm at politicians. Some were disappointed that the newly established agricultural cooperative Herenboeren, which is run by 240 families, is allowed to lease 20 hectares of municipal land at Rhee from 1 November. That lease was owned by two other farmers in recent years. Their annual contract was terminated by the municipality on 1 November, without any consultation at the beginning of this year. And that already caused bad blood. Now that the Herenboeren would have broken the law, and the congregation overlooks that, the turnips are completely done.
Powerful milling
More than a week ago, manager Henk Boer of the Herenboeren cooperative had pieces of grassland near Rhee dug up by contractors from the region. First with a cutter, later with a spit cutter. It is not about plowing, but lighter tilling, in which the sod is covered. The land cultivation was necessary because Herenboeren wants to grow different types of vegetables on the site and wants to plant a fruit orchard at the back of the site.
But after September, grassland may no longer be worked up by law, due to nitrogen regulations. The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) supervises these rules and grants an exemption if necessary.
Dagblad van het Noorden reported today about the mistake of Herenboeren and that the municipality is aware of the violation. In a response, the municipal spokesperson indicates that the situation is tolerated, ‘because the intention of the Herenboeren is the right one’. In the newspaper, the municipal spokesman states that ‘everyone understands that you cannot grow products on grassland’.
Noise annoying
Only on clay soil may grassland be torn between 1 November and the end of December, if the next crop that comes but is not grass. At Hof van Rhee, vegetables and an orchard will be planted on the grassland in question, but the subsoil is not clay. Herenboeren could have started work with a possible exemption, but this has not been requested. Henk Boer, manager of the cooperative, was not aware that he would have broken the law with the cultivation of the land. He also finds it very annoying that there is so much fuss about it.
How many poles?
According to City Party PLOP, ‘other tenants are now full of questions about the role of the municipality in this’. “It is also not surprising that they wonder how many measuring sticks the municipality has. One for the tenant farmer and one for the Herenboeren,” wonders party chairman Henk Santing.
PLOP and CDA doubt whether the municipality can tolerate this, such a legal violation. And whether the Municipal Executive has not spoken out of turn. “Isn’t the party assessing such an economic offense the Netherlands Enterprise Agency”, Santing of PLOP wonders.
More exceptions?
PLOP is also afraid of an exceptional position for Herenboeren. And that is with the sustainable lease of municipal agricultural land, for which earlier this year strict rules have been established, with the consent of the board. “The ease with which the Commission now tolerates the case of Herenboeren, raises the question whether there will soon be an exception for Herenboeren to the rules for a more sustainable lease.”
Earlier this year, the municipality decided to lease it to Herenboeren Assen, because the cooperative works according to the sustainable principle, according to B and W. As little pesticides and nitrogen use as possible, and as few large agricultural machines as possible.
Warning from PLOP
The agricultural cooperative Herenboeren Assen indicated earlier this month that it would like to redesign the twenty hectares of grassland further into Hof van Rhee in the near future. This means, among other things: the planting in December of a fruit orchard where chickens roaming around, a meadow for fire-red cattle, an area for pigs with mud puddles, the construction of a vegetable greenhouse and a large vegetable garden with various vegetable beds.
City party PLOP warns in advance: “We may needlessly point out to the Commission that no planting may take place from 1 November to 1 February, the winter dormancy period.”
Herenboeren: ‘We are not doing anything wrong’
The Herenboeren Assen Foundation finally states in a press statement that ‘they do nothing that is not allowed’. Chairman Mariska Pater regrets all the commotion and declares that contact was immediately made with the Rijksdienst RVO this afternoon. And according to her, there appears to be ‘little going on’. “The plot that has been tilled is no longer intended for feed production or grazing. There will be a fruit orchard there, so the rules for grassland tearing do not apply here,” said the spokesman of the RVO, “said Father.
The cooperative in Assen receives advice and professional support from the national umbrella organization Herenboeren Nederland. This means that the matter will be discussed again with the National Service next week, ‘to really make sure that nothing has gone wrong’. “Normally, a farmer who violates the cracking ban has to pay back part of the European agricultural subsidy money as a punishment. But because Herenboerlanden does not receive a single euro from Brussels, this is not an issue”, says Herenboeren Assen.
In the unlikely event that something has been done wrong, the Asser cooperative wants to donate the amount of the fine to a good farming cause within the existing sector. Herenboeren Nederland will double that amount.
Also read:
– .
