Make Maastricht Green Again

By far one of the main topics this month was air quality and the environmental zone. Ten years ago, the environmental zone could have made the difference in reducing diesel cars. However, recent research suggests that, with the declining number of diesel cars, this would now be merely symbolic politics. Therefore, we voted for a motion that would allow the five million earmarked for the environmental zone to be invested in more effective measures for better air quality. The motion calls on municipal executives to come up with a council proposal with effective measures. As soon as that council proposal is finished, we will of course take a critical look at the measures it contains, so that we can actually improve air quality. We do not distance ourselves from a green Maastricht. Quite the opposite: Volt advocates a real Maastricht Green Deal.

During the June 2023 council meeting, we advocated for a Maastricht Green Deal. We agreed to make €5 million available for this program, but we remain critical of its content. To ensure that the proposed measures are effective, we submitted a series of written questions.

In 2019, the central government indicated that the planned environmental zone could not be implemented. The minister instructed the municipality of Maastricht to compromise: instead of gasoline cars, only diesel cars would be barred. Since then, research has shown that the expected - and desired - benefits of this modified environmental zone are not as expected, and certainly not commensurate with the costs.

The track record recently published by the municipality - a study of the possibilities of improving air quality and accessibility in Maastricht - describes how other measures offer much better solutions, often for a smaller budget. What is certain is that the environmental zone in its original form will not be implemented. What is less certain is what the money for this measure can then be spent on.

To prevent the money reserved for the environmental zone from returning to the general coffers of the municipality later, we have co-sponsored a motion with the Senioren Partij. This motion instructs municipal executives to prepare a council proposal for an alternative spending of this money on measures that will benefit air quality and greening in Maastricht.

During the Council meeting of 08-11-22, we approved a motion by GroenLinks calling on the municipality to end its financial support for Maastricht Aachen Airport as soon as possible. Unfortunately, this motion did not pass. Nevertheless, together with GroenLinks, we will continue to work on this issue.

You can read the entire motion and rationale for discontinuing the grant here.

We advocate that the Dutch regulations around energy sharing be more flexible. Therefore, in cooperation with Volt Netherlands, we have created a post calling for this. The post can be found here .