Shopkeepers at Koopmansplein in Ten Boer have covered the advertising on their facades with black plastic. They protest against the new advertising tax. The municipality wants to use the levy to combat the messy appearance of shopping areas.
“Do you see rubbish here?” asks Gerard Haan, owner of the Readshop and chairman of the Koopmansplein Retailers’ Association. “We have never had any complaints from customers or other passers-by. That charge doesn’t apply to anything. Advertising is an expression of liveliness. This is a village and not a city. There is no proliferation of bicycles and scooters here, as in the city center of Groningen.”
Anyone who wants to avoid the levy will have to suffice with one square meter of advertising on the facade in two years. The municipality expects entrepreneurs to limit their advertising. In administrative language, this is about ‘reclaiming the public space’. Passers-by do not understand what the municipality is talking about. “It looks neat. The only annoyance is a shortage of parking spaces,” says a customer who goes to the supermarket. “That’s because people who work in the area park their cars here all day.”
According to Haan, who speaks on behalf of the merchants at the Koopmansplein, the deep outrage over the introduction of the advertising tax is not an isolated event. “The municipality has been causing Ten Boer a lot of annoyance for years. We are still waiting for the promised redevelopment of the Koopmansplein. In addition, the structural reinforcement of the residential and retail properties is added. We are being kept on a string. The municipality should help entrepreneurs instead of frustrating us even more.”
Slap in the face
Haan calls the advertising tax a slap in the face. “We are left to our own devices, but if we have to pay they know where to find us,” says Haan, who mobilized his colleagues last week and ordered black plastic. “It is time for action. We have to do something. The development and strengthening of Koopmansplein has been discussed for years. Here we see one expert after another. They come by and then we don’t hear from them again.”
The government expects a lot of resilience from the residents, especially in the earthquake village of Ten Boer. But according to Haan, people are tired of gas extraction and the earthquakes. “You think: maybe they will spare us, but that is not the case. How do you imagine imposing an extra tax as a municipality in such a situation?
The retailers are supported by the Ten Boer Entrepreneurs Association. “I have regular contact with them. They also wonder where this ends.”
‘Entrepreneurs are having a hard time’
Retailers’ association Ten Boer has warned the municipality of further depopulation of the Koopmansplein. “Entrepreneurs are having a hard time. A number have stopped or are considering doing so. I will be retiring in a few years. I still have to see whether this case will be continued,” says Haan. “If you want not only a COOP supermarket to remain, you have to encourage entrepreneurs and not bother them with an extra tax.”
The fact that the municipality gives entrepreneurs a year to reduce advertising from two to one square meter does not reassure the retailers’ association. Haan: “Advertising is part of a shopping area. We want to show who we are. If you are not given that, you don’t feel taken seriously.”