Summary Together The Hague

ChristenUnie/SGP: Together The Hague!

The Hague is the international city of peace and justice. A beautiful, but divided city. The gap between richer and poorer parts of the city only seems to be growing. I refuse to accept such a gap. To me, everyone is valuable: young and old, believer and non-believer, Hagenaar and Hagenees, newcomer and local, expats and Dutch. I am committed to a city where we peacefully live together, where we can age with dignity and where our children will have a sustainable future. Would you like to support this vision for a city council with an eye for the needs of its residents, a city government that really listens to you?

Then vote ChristenUnie / SGP on the 21st of March 2018 for a city where we care for others and prosper together. Together The Hague!

Pieter Grinwis

Party Leader of ChristenUnie/SGP The Hague

Peace for the City

The ChristenUnie/SGP is committed to a connected city in which we peacefully live together. Living peacefully is not always apparent in The Hague. Ethnic, cultural, religious and ideological differences regularly cause tensions and division. The ChristenUnie/SGP is a strong defender of the freedom of diversity, but at the same time we believe that people need a community with shared values to flourish. We are only able to peacefully deal with our differences when every (new) citizen embraces the foundations of the democratic state and internalises the core values ​​of our society, marked by Christian tradition.

1. Everyone safe on the streets. Violence based on ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or gender diversity unfortunately also occurs in our city. This is unacceptable and we will address the issue firmly, starting with a better registration of violence and intimidation related to race, religion, gender and sexual orientation.

2. Freedom of religion. The right to religious freedom is a fundamental human right. Believers must be able to gather unhindered in churches, synagogues, mosques or other places of worship.

3. The Hague Children’s Peace Summit. In The Hague there will be a Peace Summit where children from all over the world come together to get to know each other and share their thoughts and experiences on current problems in the world.

4. More police on the streets. The municipality will invest more money to increase the enforcement capacity of The Hague.

5. Effective integration. The Hague municipality will work on a better integration of people holding a residence permit. Through an enhanced (municipal) integration program, newcomers will more quickly become independent, get a good command of the Dutch language, internalise the core values, get housing, (volunteering) jobs, and/or studying opportunities. There will be active collaboration with churches to reach migrants.

6. Anti-Radicalisation policy. In The Hague we do not tolerate radical Islamic extremism or any other form of radical violence and extremism. The Hague will continue its policy against radicalisation among Muslims. The municipality uses all legal instruments to keep the city clean of sources of radicalisation, such as hate preachers.

7. The Resident is heard. We improve involvement of residents in the development of The Hague, whether the development plans are supported or criticised.

8. Maintain iconic church buildings. Policy will be developed regarding preservation of empty church buildings. There will be a church building fund to preserve for posterity church heritage as much as possible.

9. Neighbourhood libraries. In neighbourhoods where there is no longer a library, such as Bouwlust, it will be reopened.

10. Focus on recreational sports. The sports initiative continues in The Hague while investing mainly in recreational sports. No more money is to be invested in the professional football club of The Hague (ADO).

Hope for the vulnerable

The ChristenUnie/SGP favors a caring society, in which people have an eye for each other and provide care to those in need of it. The local government stimulates people helping each other as a good neighbour, volunteer or caregiver. The municipality has a special responsibility towards vulnerable people in society which are not supported by other people and/or are unable to sustain themselves. The ChristenUnie/SGP wants justice to be done to the most vulnerable, for example people in debt, victims of human trafficking and people with a handicap.

1. Have an eye for the social contribution of churches. Churches and other religious or ideological organisations often contribute to society in a social way. The city hall has an eye for these initiatives and cooperates in any situation possible. When possible, information is exchanged, knowledge is shared and a joint use of church buildings is stimulated.

2. Meaning to the lonely. Solitude often goes hand in hand with a lack of meaning to life. Volunteers who visit elder people are equipped to support at existential questions and proactively point out the possibilities for elder people to meet and to do voluntary work in their neighbourhood.

3. Good health care for everyone. Every Hagenaar deserves the health care which suits him/her the most. If people are unable to maintain their household, home care should be provided for. The ChristenUnie/SGP invests in good home care and in retaining day activities, for people to have a useful way to spend their day and to remove the burden from caregivers.

4. Prevent the escalation of debts. Debt counsellors/district teams will be provided with a budget that they can invest themselves to prevent the escalation of debts. We will take measures against fraudulent collective agencies. Indeed, we prefer to send over a counsellor, rather than a collector.

5. Improve the accessibility of debt counsellors. Debt counselling should not only be available in worst case scenarios, but also to those who are not yet ‘as problematic as necessary’. Volunteers and voluntary organisations can fulfil a major responsibility here.

6. The Hague free of drugs smoke. Smoking weed will be prohibited in public areas, starting in those areas where this occurs the most, such as the Zeeheldenkwartier and Regentesse- and Valkenboskwartier, shopping areas, schools and play grounds.

7. Don’t gamble with casinos. There will be a ban on new casinos in The Hague, as well as for the expansion of the areas in which casinos will be able to house themselves. Definitely not in the most vulnerable districts.

8. Closing prostitution windows. We will not spare any expense to terminate window prostitution in The Hague. Closing goes hand in hand with finding new places to live for prostitutes, finding work and providing psychological assistance to traumatized women who work in the streets. Furthermore, we will invest more in exit programmes for these women.

9. Combatting human trafficking. Human trafficking is not solely a problem of The Hague or The Netherlands, but is in every sense transnational. Therefore, we must cooperate more extensively with Interpol and our national police in order to put measures against the problems in Middle- and Eastern European countries.

10. The Hague accessible to everyone. Public buildings need to be easily accessible to all disabled civilians, just like buses and shops will have to become accessible to (electric) wheelchairs. Sidewalks will be designed more wheelchair friendly than they are now.

Future for our children

The ChristenUnie/SGP wants a city in which families and children have a future, where all generations will be able to live and work properly and stay to do so. This means that The Hague has to stay an attractive city to live in for youth and singles, elderly and families, poor and rich and most definitely for people with a middle income. A city, where we maintain affordable houses, good education and room to play and to study. This, of course, does not happen by itself in a city ever growing, where houses become less and less affordable. The ChristenUnie/SGP makes clear choices to bring that perspective closer to all.

1. Attractive city for all to live. The Hague needs to stay a diverse city, in which everyone is able to live, with middle income households as its backbone. Our starting point is to add affordable quality to the city, so all – predominantly families – will be able to afford their houses.

2. Well-balanced residential areas. Districts with a one-sided housing supply, such as in Moerwijk and Bouwlust, need to become more attractive to a wider audience. Restructuring these districts will be continued again, whilst keeping an eye on the prevention of humid and mold problems. Low-cost houses that disappear, will be replaced by middle and more expensive rental and owner-occupied dwellings. Also, richer districts will get more low-cost houses.

3. Find shelter for the homeless. In order to find homeless people shelter in a faster way, there will be more houses available to them. Furthermore, we improve cooperation between the social service and housing corporations.

4. Refugee students get a chance. A refugee student needs to get a chance to finish his/her education or to add diplomas. To make this possible, we cooperate with adult schools and language education provided by ROC Mondriaan, The Hague School of Applied Sciences, the UAF and others involved. If there is no study loan (yet), studying whilst retaining social welfare will be possible.

5. Parents are important and more guys in front of the classrooms. Parents are not only important as volunteers at school, but equally important to provide a safe and stimulating home for the child’s development. We will not cut budgets on parent involvement. Also, we will create a special plan to tackle the shortage of teachers in which we will highlight ‘more guys in front of the class’ in order to make primary education more attractive for male teachers. We stimulate ‘he-entrants’.

6. Parent courses via Centres for Youth and Family. A child will thrive as long as its parents do. That’s why we support parents via parenting courses by child centres. Birth care not only needs to be focused on physical preparation, but also on the mental part.

7. A secure future for our children. Children need to have a safe and secure future in The Hague. The municipality works as much as they can to prevent domestic violence, child abuse and divorces that end up in fights and bullying. Parents are to be supported in their upbringing by the Centre for Youth and Family, for example by parenting courses.

8. Prevent depression and suicide. The municipality stimulates and improves physical health of both children and parents and will invest more in the prevention of depressions and suicide among youth.

9. Combatting fictitious marriages. We will put measures to be more strict on possible informal marriages. The police needs more information on what to do when a woman or man wants to file an unlawful marriage.

10. Children play on walking distance. Play grounds and materials will be divided in a proper way by the municipality: children should be able to play on walking distance from their homes.

Care for creation

We believe that the creation is entrusted to our care and that we must handle it carefully. We want to pass on The Hague to our children as well as possible. That is why the ChristenUnie/SGP wants our city to become sustainable and climate neutral. A green and climate-proof city that is easily accessible by bicycle and public transport. With cleaner air and a healthy environment. In this way we ensure that our children and grandchildren can still live in our city with pleasure.

  1. Sustainable The Hague. Latest by 2040 The Hague should be CO2-neutral. To be able to achieve that, all households should be removed from gas and made more sustainable.  There will be a fund to help people invest and take sustainability measures, such as heat pumps. Investments in local geothermal heat sources are given priority.
  2. Avoid energy poverty. We use Eneco's dividend to make the homes of people with a low and middle income more sustainable.
  3. Baby tree. For every first child that is born in The Hague, the government plants a tree. With streets without trees or other greenery, a look is taken to what could be added.
  4. Bicycle on pole position.Cycling is encouraged more. We are constantly working on the construction and improvement of (star) bicycle routes and bicycle safety. Innovations, such as rain sensors at traffic lights, so that cyclists have priority in rain, are tested and if possible applied.
  5. Bikes left behind. Bicycles without owners are being taken out of the streets. To reduce the amount of no-owner bicycles and wrecked bicycles, the inhabitants of the area get the opportunity to hand in their unused bicycles twice a year.
  6. Public transport: underground and above ground. Public transport lines with many passengers must be brought underground, at least the Binckhorst-Den Haag Centraal-Madurodam route and an extension of the current tram tunnel under the Grote Marktstraat. In time, such lines can develop into fully-fledged metro connections to Scheveningen and the Leyweg.
  7. Attractive public transport due to higher frequency. Quality, frequency and speed determine the attractiveness of public transport. In the evening the trams run more than twice an hour.
  8. Traffic safety is given priority. There will be a road safety plan, with which we will make the remaining unsafe intersections and roads, such as the Westduinweg safer. Streets around schools are going to become a 30 km zone.
  9. Parking policy with support. Paid parking is only introduced if there is support among the residents.
  10. More clean air please. The municipality should do more to get the air of The Hague city cleaner. Innovative ways to clean the air are applied and, if necessary, the environmental zone in the center of The Hague will be expanded.

Work for everyone

The ChristenUnie/SGP wants everyone in The Hague to be able to work. Having a job is much more than earning money. Working ensures connection, development, independence and being able to contribute to society. The ChristenUnie/SGP wants everyone to be able to make such a contribution in The Hague. Whether it is a paid job, voluntary work or informal care, in The Hague we work not only for ourselves, but also for each other. That is why we focus on activating people in assistance and we offer opportunities to young people with “golden hands” by giving space to (social) entrepreneurs, startups and the Scheveningen port. There is work for everyone!

  1. Space for businesses. Specific attention will be paid to reducing the rules that impede entrepreneurs, such as the rigid rules for shop outlets. In addition, there will be one strong business counter. We also see space through the physical spectacles: more business space must become available for SMEs.
  2. No mandatory Sunday opening. Entrepreneurs may not be forced (contractually) to open their store on Sundays. There will be no (compulsory) Sunday opening on the Haagse Markt. We support entrepreneurs who opt for rest.
  3. There will be a financial impetus for neighbourhood shopping centres. Streets, facades and shop windows are being refurbished in consultation with entrepreneurs and residents.
  4. Diploma for previously acquired competencies. Many young people, but also older people who have had the same job for a long time, do not have diplomas. This does not do justice to the competencies they have built up in their working lives. These people can receive an official diploma through a special process.
  5. Startups on the map. The formulas Impact City and Impact Economy become our export product. We work towards a worldwide network of Impact Cities. Startups and scale-ups are also good for the economy. The Binckhorst remains the place for startups in our city. We will improve accessibility of the Binckhorst by public transportation and improve signage to put The Hague startup zone on the map.
  6. Tourist city The Hague. We are committed to high-quality tourism with an eye for small scale. The royal hotspots like Noordeinde Palace and the royal stables will be more often opened to the public. There will be an annoyance hotline to report nuisance-causing Airbnb rental places and agreements are made with Airbnb about paying tourist tax.
  7. Social entrepreneurship. Pull out all stops for entrepreneurs who work from their hearts. There will be a better match between the different target groups and entrepreneurs. We are working on more apprenticeships that get young people and other vulnerable people on the labour market and in education.
  8. A congress is organised in The Hague. More and more conferences are taking place in The Hague. That is a good development that we want to strengthen.
  9. People in the assistance will have more control. We are introducing a Personal Reintegration Budget, with which people in the assistance with social benefits can make proposals themselves for attending a course or learning skills, in order to become permanently self-supporting. Volunteering is made easier for people in the social service.
  10. Port of Scheveningen, a real port. More space should be given to port-related activities in the port. There will therefore be fewer homes, no hotels and no bridge across the Pijp. Also a pop museum, theater or casino do not belong here.

Investing in Together The Hague

The election program of the ChristenUnie/SGP is financially sound. Without raising the burden on citizens and businesses, we see a chance to invest heavily in the coming years in affordable housing (€ 50 million), care for vulnerable people (€ 58 million), in a greener and more sustainable city (€ 77 million), a bicycle-friendly city with good public transport and better traffic flow (€ 45 million), in a safe city where everyone integrates (€ 24 million) and in work for everyone (€ 15 million).

The ChristenUnie/SGP for your neighbourhood

The ChristenUnie/SGP also makes numerous concrete proposals in its election program to improve the situation in your neighbourhood. On our website you will find all proposals (in Dutch).