Budget speech: The Greens

Dear Mayor Kerkhoff
Dear employees of the city administration
Ladies and gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to thank the employees of the city administration and, in particular, the Finance Department and you, Ms Schlaghecken, for all your hard work in preparing the budget, especially as a supplementary budget - which we felt was avoidable - had to be prepared in the summer of 2024.

B90 / DIE GRÜNEN have been intensively involved in the always constructive discussions on the budget deliberations. I would therefore also like to thank my colleagues from the other parliamentary groups.

Nevertheless, we are ultimately not satisfied with the result.

On the one hand, we did not want a double budget, as decisions are already being made today that will have to be effectively adopted by the new municipal council after the local elections.

On the other hand, the budget for 2025 and 2026 shows a deficit of well over €30 million in each year. At the same time, it can be seen from the treasurer's comments that the "fat years" are probably over for Bocholt. In the future, there is a threat of a loss of trade tax revenue and a decline in allocations from the state of NRW.

Before I describe our view of the budget in more detail, I would like to take this opportunity to take a brief look at some of the prominent issues of recent weeks and months.

On 20 March 2024, the municipal council meeting became a bit of a betting shop. At the time, the majority of those present placed a bet with almost €3 million of taxpayers' money that third division football would be played at Hünting in the foreseeable future.

As things stand today, this bet has not materialised. The necessary sporting success, which we expressly wish for 1. FC Bocholt, has unfortunately not materialised to date.

Nevertheless, the administration had to put a huge amount of effort into drawing up a supplementary budget. We opposed this decision at the time and requested that the discussions on supporting 1.FC Bocholt be postponed until the 2025 budget consultation. In retrospect, this would clearly have been the better choice.

Unfortunately, we have also been unable to find a hearing on the topic of mobility, although new approaches and ideas are needed here in particular in order to meet the major challenges in terms of environmental and climate protection.

The introduction of on-demand transport proposed by us can also ensure sustainable mobility in rural areas and is a form of public transport that is tailored to the needs of citizens.

• tailored to the needs of citizens,
• economically viable and
• and ecologically sensible.

Unfortunately, there is currently no majority in this House in favour of this.

The same applied to the FDP parliamentary group's motion in July 2024 - which we were pleased to note - that all eligible secondary school pupils in Bocholt should be provided with the Deutschlandticket. We would have liked to have seen overwhelming approval from the city council. We were all the more surprised when this very good proposal was then rejected, particularly by the CDU.

Unfortunately, a great opportunity to promote local public transport and to guide young people towards sustainable mobility was missed.

When we talk about our city, we also have to talk about the (mis)development of Bocholt's city centre. Surveys on the city centre strategy concept and the children's conferences have clearly shown that we need green spaces in the centre of our city that can be used without any pressure to consume. Unfortunately, little has happened here so far.

At this point, it should be critically noted that we have been waiting since 3 May 2023 for the results of the unanimously approved review application, according to which an equal and open-ended examination of the unsealing and greening of Manes-Schlatt Platz as an alternative to building development is to be examined. We were pleased to note the administration's promise to finally present the results of the review in March 2025.

More greenery in the city centre through small and large unsealed areas is necessary to counteract the constant warming. Every square metre of unsealed surface is a benefit for the city's climate. If temperatures of more than 30 degrees in summer become the norm in future, it will be hard to imagine spending time on Neutorplatz, for example. Similarly, the quality of time spent in the Gasthaus-Platz, for example, should be optimised.

More green - less concrete and fewer cars, that is our motto.

We will therefore consistently pursue the goal of a city centre in which people always have priority over cars. A shopping trip, especially with children, cannot be characterised by standing at an avoidable red light or having to watch out for constantly crossing traffic.

Another major problem is the large number of vacant shops in the city centre. Here, too, new ideas, concepts and new legal frameworks are needed.

Changes of use based on urban land-use planning regulations can be an effective way of filling previously vacant spaces with active people and activities.

With regard to the growing waste problem, particularly packaging waste, we will be discussing a motion to introduce a packaging tax today. We are hoping for broad support from this House.

On a positive note, it should be noted that a lot has been happening again in Bocholt recently, especially in the catering sector. It would be all the more important if the city centre were also easily accessible by public transport on Sundays.

Last but not least, art and culture also need more time and space in the city centre. This would make Bocholt even more liveable and lovable and invite people to linger. And when good street musicians are allowed to play, Bocholt shows its best side.

In January 2025, 34,498 new electric cars were registered, which is a good 53 per cent more than in the same month last year. E-mobility is therefore gaining momentum - albeit slowly.

We would be well advised to provide more public e-charging stations in order to improve the stay in the city of Bocholt for residents and tourists. As an e-car driver, I would particularly like to see more fast-charging capacity available at some charging stations in the future.

There are currently a number of ideas regarding possible new locations for the art and city museum. It is particularly important to us that the old local history museum and the Kunsthaus retain their core structure as exciting places of exchange and communication.

Let us preserve this heritage and ensure that it is utilised sensibly.

I would like to take this opportunity to praise the digital department. bocholt.de has blossomed into a successful website and generates considerable traffic. From our point of view, this could be further improved, for example, through the increased use of event information by clubs and event organisers. bocholt.de as the central information platform for events in and around Bocholt should be our goal.

We also believe that the digitalisation strategy within the administration is developing positively. In particular, we very much welcome the intensive consideration of individual administrative processes with regard to digitisation possibilities and the associated resource savings.

On the subject of the staffing plan, however, we must note that, according to our research, almost 70 new positions have been created under the new city management in recent years, while at the same time almost 60 positions are currently vacant.

We do not fundamentally question the importance of individual positions

BUT:

We would like to see non-essential positions cancelled or reallocated

• The total number of employees increases
• Jobs are being created (some of which cannot be filled)
• In our view, there is no plan to reduce the number of jobs again in the medium term
• Jobs are to be cut in future as a result of digitalisation, but this is not specifically defined or documented anywhere

We are therefore very critical of the job plan in its current form and call on the administration to make its processes even more efficient and leaner - especially through further digitalisation.

Ladies and gentlemen,

As humanity, we are facing enormous challenges, the consequences of which we cannot yet foresee. Global warming is continuing unabated. At the same time, humans and climate change are destroying more and more habitats for humans and animals.

The extinction of species is taking on unimagined proportions. And then we ask ourselves, looking at the gravel garden, where the butterflies are.

Unfortunately, these issues are no longer getting through today. We allow ourselves to be distracted by exciting events around the world. Climate change doesn't affect us directly and we'll be fine.

In reality, however, we know that it will not go well.

The renowned climate researcher Professor Mojib Latif once said at an event organised by Stadtsparkasse Bocholt:

"We don't have a knowledge problem - we have an implementation problem".

Ultimately, this means that we know what is coming - but we are not doing enough about it.

Fortunately for Bocholt, we will be adopting the climate protection follow-up concept today. It contains many important measures, the implementation of which we welcome and will actively support in the future. Nevertheless, we would have liked to have seen more courage in the formulation and less lobbying in some areas.

In complete contrast to this is the planning for the Nordring, which is anchored in the budget. Here we are blithely planning large roads in a healthy forest despite our knowledge of climate change.

We do not have a problem of realisation - we have a problem of implementation.

We, B90 / DIE GRÜNEN, cannot support this implementation problem. For us, the realisation of the Hemdener Weg - Adenauer Alle intersection in particular goes to the heart of our political views.

We cannot comprehend how, in this day and age, with the looming climate and species protection problems, people are holding on to the realisation of these measures and making another bet.

This time the bet is: climate change will not affect us and we will carry on as before. But this bet will not work out either.

More roads generate more traffic. If driving becomes faster and more attractive, the roads will be used more often. This makes longer journeys possible and easier to achieve in the same amount of time. This phenomenon is called induced traffic.

There should be no problem recognising this knock-on effect either.

And let me make it clear:

We are not against the "Nordring" per se.

My party has agreed on this as part of a resolution of principle,

• the Westring and
• the Westring and an access road from Dinxperloer Str. to Hemdener Weg

Hemdener Weg.

Ultimately, it is also important to us to guarantee space for new housing developments. We also believe that there is an urgent need to relieve congestion on Dinxperloerstrasse and that the link road from the Westring Tunnel to the Dinxperloerstrasse / Hamalandstrasse roundabout should be planned and implemented as a matter of priority.

However, the current discussions in the Committee for Planning, Construction and Transport and the public statements by Mayor Kerkhoff show that the connection between Hemdener Weg and Adenauerallee in particular is being massively promoted.

This directly attacks our green DNA.

When a double budget is put to the vote that earmarks funds for this measure for the period after the next municipal elections, we simply cannot agree to it.

We will therefore reject the budget in its present form, even though we are in favour of many of the measures it contains and have introduced some of them ourselves.

Finally, let me turn to a special kind of building: the much talked about " firewall".

All those present here will have followed the developments in the Bundestag on 29/30 January 2025 closely. Everyone is free to form their own opinion on this.

We, B90 / DIE GRÜNEN, deeply regret what happened and consider the actions of the CDU leaders in Berlin to be a fatal mistake.

However, we also considered the decision in the city council meeting on 18 September 2024 regarding "access to premises for political purposes" to be a mistake. We are still unable to understand why a regulation that had been in place for years was ultimately abandoned in favour of the AfD.

Our hope is that the "firewall" - if it is really meant seriously by the democratic parties represented here - will hold here within the city council.

Personally, I have only experienced respectful and appreciative behaviour during my short time in office so far.

We may not always agree on issues, but hopefully we always agree on humanity.

In this respect, I look forward to continuing to work constructively with the democratic forces in this House.

Thank you very much