IJmond’s future quality of life proved once again to be a challenging topic. Tonight’s theme has been canceled with this one at the Kennimer Theater. Sam van Leeuwen of the curated IJmond Noord Library explains: “From the questions and comments, it seemed like the topic might be more loaded than we thought. Then we decided to take a little more time to organize it properly.”
Two weeks ago, the library announced a “low threshold encounter” with the topic: IJmond’s future quality of life. Various speakers will enter into a discussion on the podium, and residents of Egmond municipalities are warmly invited to attend and participate in the discussion.
A beautiful plan, but also necessary, from the point of view of the library, which, as Van Leeuwen says, is “trying to participate socially.”
definitely after RIVM’s latest report, Which indicates that a significant part of the harmful substances in IJmond come from Tata Steel, and that emissions measurements by Tata Steel and RIVM sometimes vary to one hundred.
Stuck in agreements and interests
Van Leeuwen: “You get the feeling on social media that there are different camps. Whereas if you look in practice, or on the street, the picture is often more accurate.”
Therefore, the library wanted to honor its main function of “meeting and discussion” in order to bring the two sides together. The library itself explicitly wants to be a neutral party.
Van Leeuwen: “Parties could perhaps find themselves together sooner if the discussion was about the future, rather than the present. Nowadays, they are often bound by all sorts of agreements and interests. They can largely determine the future for themselves. The parties have also been open-minded. on her “.
But last week, the organization put a line in the evening.
A lot of work
“We noticed we had to spend more time for our programming,” van Leeuwen admits. “We almost had room for the participants, but we wondered: Is it really in equilibrium? And beyond The Public Prosecution investigation has begun in Tata, which in fact led to a further split in the population, the more serious it became. Do we have everything under control? Can we fully support it then? “
“Then we were accused here and there by residents and on social media that it was too much about employment, and too little about nature and the environment. As we strive for balance.”
The library will now assess how to “better and with a balanced program” organize the evening. According to Van Leeuwen, the organizers are assuming a new date in the summer. There will surely be: “We’ve noticed there’s a lot of interest in an accessible discussion, and we’re excited about that.”
Participants
This is what the field of the participants in the canceled evening looked like. It is not yet clear if this will be the same with the new version.
– Alderman of Beverwijk Municipality, Brigitte van den Berg
– Nienke van de Waal, GGD Kennemerland
– Bram Nugtrain, Tata Steel
– Luc Verchotrin, GP, known for his performance on Op1
– Adrie Winkelman, founder of IJmond IJzersterk
– Roel Berghuis, Former Director of FNV Tata Steel
