What does the CDA stand for?

Our three main standpoints are firstly, the quality of living in The Hague, security in The Hague under the CDA Mayor Wim Deetman, was shown to be improving, but we have the distinction between actual security and the feeling of security that residents in the city have.

The actual security figures show less crime and fewer charges being brought by victims of crime.

But the feeling of security is not as high and we think more needs to be done. More camera control in the public spaces for example, is one change that what we want. This is important to support the police with their tasks. I made several visits to the city’s police stations and one example where cameras help I saw, was when there was a riot on the street. A camera was in use during the disturbance and one of the rioters was filmed hitting a victim and stealing his wallet. No one saw it on the ground, but the camera operator was able to pick it up. Later he was able to guide the ground officers to the man and he was arrested and prosecuted.

Cameras are no substitute for the police but they are an important tool.

Another important thing in the field of safety is that we want more civil law enforcers on the street, not police, but municipal staff.

We have rules, such as how you can put your rubbish out at night and on which days. But they are not being enforced this has to change. Another example is dog owners not cleaning up after their animals on the streets. For a lot of people this a huge issue, in many cases, dog owners are not fined.

We have figures that for 2008, only 270 offending dog owners were prosecuted for the entire year, for the entire city. This is a joke, because you can be assured that more dog owners were offending than that. So this is a typical example, if you do not enforce the laws, they are worthless.

The second point is the quality of living. Making sure there are enough parks, recreation areas and playgrounds for children. The CDA over the last four years has produced a Quality of Living Meter. It measures the quality of living in each area of the city.

We believe that the areas that have the highest concentration of residents do not have enough open spaces and thus a lower quality of life. We are keen to make sure that the balance between space and population is kept. But over the last four years we have seen a bit of an increase in the population in comparison to recreation areas.

This has other effects too. For example parking area shortages. You cannot stack cars on top of each other to save space on our streets. What does the coalition do, they put paid and permit parking in place. What is the effect of that? People who do not want to pay for parking move their cars away and park in the next neighbourhood, where there is free parking. Then the Municipality says the problem is solved because of the parking metres. But in actual fact they have moved the problem over to the next residential area. When these areas complain, they then implement paid parking again and then the problem moves again.

Although many of us are paying for our parking now, the problem is just as large as it was ten years ago.

One solution is there should be more parking garages, such as underground car parks or garages in residential areas. You can do this in addition to permit parking. Our main criticism of the municipality is that they only use permit parking as the solution and nothing else.

The last point is the economic situation. The money for our local budget from the national government is going to be less. We think it is important that the municipality make budget cuts or introduce alternatives to current plans. A lot of the leftist parties want to raise taxes for the local citizens. They are saying that their policies and plans have to continue. They say, ‘there is less money for our projects, so we must raise the taxes to pay for them’. We are opposed to that.

It is the wrong starting point. I think if the municipality has less money it should also spend less money.

So it is going to be painful for the municipality to balance the budget and still get things done, we think they should look at their own spending first and the Hague citizens should be the last to be affected.

Some people only associate Expats with employment, profit and opportunity. Does your party?

No, we have always had international people living in the city, we are a UN city and Expats are part of our economy. We don’t have industry in The Hague, we have services and much of that economy is made up of international bodies. We do not look at Expats as markets for profit. Some of the Marketers in the last few years in the city have become aware of the 30,000 or so Expats as a distinct market but that is just business. Expats represent much more to the enrichment and future of our city than just being a kind of market segment.

How is it possible to include The Hague on the HSL?

Good question. It is also important that, within a short period of time, The Hague should be part of the High-Speed Line to Paris. For CDA, the accessibility of The Hague is very important. With the disappearance of the Benelux train service we need a good shuttle connection with Brussels. Another important issue is that visitors that land at The Hague Airport can get to their destination in our city fast. A final issue, is that we will request more scheduled flights from The Hague Airport to cities like Frankfurt, Luxemburg and Strasburg.

Who are your greatest opposition?

Our greatest opponents, are those who are afraid of our plans for camera surveillance. Also, we are an opposition party so those people who have been in the governing Municipal Executive of the municipality for the last four years are also our opponents.

Which issues do you think Expats care deeply about?

Well for starters, the traffic plan is chaotic at the moment and needs fixing. The parking problems as well as I mentioned before. I also believe we must ensure the quality of our international schools here. These schools should be as good or better than the schools in the Expats home countries.

Coming from an Expat family myself, I believe that Expats care about many of the same things as the other residents of The Hague. I am the son of two German parents. My parents chose to live here permanently, so I went to a Dutch school and Dutch University. I spoke German with my parents at home and Dutch with everyone else. So schools for one are important, especially for people who live here for only a few years and need a good international school.

What are your dreams for the next five years?

One important dream is that I want to stop families leaving The Hague. A thousand families leave and go to areas outside the city, such as Nootdorp. They do this because there is more affordable housing with gardens, better parking and space for their children to play. My dream for the next five years is that these people will stay in The Hague and they will see the city as a good place to raise their families.

By Andrew Balcombe

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