Youth

Date: April 14, 2025
Time: 7:30–9:00 p.m.
Location: Kelder, De Pol, Aalten

The municipality of Aalten is tasked with developing a new omgevingsvisie the entire municipal area in collaboration with its residents. We are doing this, among other things, by engaging in area-specific discussions with our residents and other stakeholders about what they consider important for the future of their own living environment.

This is the report of the discussion with young people (via the youth council) on April 14, 2025. A total of around 10 young people took part in the discussion. The discussion was supervised by two employees of the municipality of Aalten.

Do you have any comments or feedback on this report? Please send them to omgevingsvisie.
Would you like to share your thoughts on the new omgevingsvisie the municipality of Aalten? Please use this email address as well.

What was the purpose of this conversation?

The purpose of this discussion was to hear from young people in Aalten about what they consider important for the living environment in Aalten as we look toward 2040, so that these perspectives can be incorporated into the new omgevingsvisie.

What were the outcomes of this conversation?

First, the interview asked young people to indicate, on a sheet with a variety of different aspects of the living environment, which aspects the young people consider most important toward 2040. Each young person was allowed to tick up to 3 aspects. The aspects that were ticked most often were:

• Basic social services, including education (3x checked)
• Social cohesion and participation (3x ticked)
• Housing construction (ticked 2x)
• Sports and sports facilities (ticked twice)
• Public space and green spaces (ticked 2x)
• Environment, noise, smell/odor, air quality (mentioned 2x)

Subsequently, on the lines of some of these initial outcomes, further discussion took place on the aforementioned topics. The outcomes of this follow-up conversation were as follows:

Basic social services, including education

• Preferably close by, including in small(er) cores
• Accessibility of facilities can and should be improved
• Kiss & ride at schools
• Safety of routes to facilities (e.g., the routes young people bike from the outlying area to the core and vice versa)
• Coverage and affordability of public transportation

Social cohesion/naobility

• Organize activities to get to know each other better
• From schools: buddy projects (schools should pay more attention to this)
• Schools though good channel to engage young people
• Associations in general have an important contribution
• Supply of meeting places for young people is limited (also has to do with 18+ policy for consuming alcohol)
• Affordability/contributions of associations
• More entertainment venues for young people 16 and older
• Fine weather hangouts for young people, and not just on weekends

Housing

• Affordability and availability also for young people
• Also tiny houses and the like but not necessarily
• Upstairs apartments over stores and the like also fine
• Living together on inheritance (with multiple generations) best OK
• More high-rise buildings, but not too high
• Living in nursing homes and the like also quite OK

Also important here

• Safety (both social safety and road safety)
• Green
• Clean environment (more trash cans and the like plus more frequent emptying)
• Diversity (mix of young and old et cetera)
• Appearance of the village
• Balance between building, greenery, animals and the like
• Neighborhood meeting places
• Space for parking, as well as car sharing and the like (related to affordability)

Other

• Removal of Christ signs, etc. along roads (give Aalten an undeserved Christian image)
• Turning 18 and then? Many questions, but who will provide answers?

How to move forward?

The Municipality of Aalten will synthesize all input (including policies from other government bodies and similar sources) into a single, integrated, coherent, and as concrete as possible draft omgevingsvisie, which will outline—for Aalten as a whole as well as for its individual sub-areas—the developments that are and are not desired by 2040, and (in broad terms) how we intend to realize the desired living environment by 2040.