NETHERLANDS: Hangout For The Elderly Project Fails

OUDE PEKELA, Groningen (NIS News Bulletin-Den Bosch), August 8, 2006: A project to provide a meeting spot for the elderly has failed in the town of Oude Pekela. The local council had officially designated a location on the street as a spot where old men and women could have a chat in peace, but youngsters have taken over the spot. The official meeting-place for older people in Oude Pekela, a village in Groningen, was presented last March as a unique project. The meeting spot was installed after a shopping centre complained that groups of old people were taking up too much room. The council decided they should pursue their social contacts at a different location. But the spot has been taken over by local youngsters hanging around, said National Fund for Aid for the Elderly director J. Romme yesterday. "Graffiti has been written on the benches and cigarette butts are piling up." As far as Romme is concerned, the mess should be cleaned up and the benches put back in their original spot in the shopping centre. "And otherwise, we will simply move the bench to a town in the Netherlands where the initiative is appreciated." The meeting-place for the elderly idea has meanwhile been copied in towns like Eindhoven and Almere. The Labour (PvdA) party, in its new election programme, explicitly stresses the urgency of accessible meeting spots for the elderly. Source: www.nisnews.nl