Amstelveen municipal council wants more space to participate

December 16, 2023 at 8:00 am

Policy

Amstelveen The city council unanimously adopted a proposal from the Socialist Party on Wednesday demanding greater room for citizen participation in political decision-making. SP is mainly concerned with participation during so-called “Council discussions”. Residents can already participate in Council Discussions, but only information is exchanged there, and the Council does not yet take any political positions. This will happen in subsequent Council discussions.

In previous meetings of the committee, in which political positions were also determined, citizens could have their say. The Socialist Party regrets that this option is no longer available in the current Council discussions. SP faction leader Patrick Adrians pointed out that Amstelveen is the only municipality in the region where this is not possible. He therefore asked by proposing to investigate how to arrange this better and try it next year. He also suggested an assessment of other municipalities, such as Haarlemmermeer.

Video recordings

Emil Ciardema (50+) suggested making video recordings of Council discussions from now on, as has already been done with Council discussions and meetings. This facilitates the work of the council for small factions as well as the work of the press. This is not currently recorded, although there is a lot of participation in Council discussions.

This was discussed in the Municipal Council in the context of deciding on a proposal to amend the system of council meetings. Although the motion was adopted, the SP is not satisfied with the amended meeting order. Adriaans felt that more changes had to be made or a step back should be taken. The SP was the only person to vote against the amended meeting order.