Most people registered on the website of the Northern Netherlands Partnership (SNN), but long queues also formed at various town halls today. The counters opened at 9.00 this morning, but in Scheemda for example the first reported at 5.30 am, tweets mayor Cora-Yfke Sikkema of the municipality of Oldambt.
Up before midnight?
SNN director Marjan Dol told the regional channel RTV Noord that at 9:00 a.m about 50,000 people were in the digital queue. More than an hour later, that had dropped to 39,000, possibly because people had logged in via multiple devices at the same time.
220 million euros is available. That amount could already be paid today, before midnight, SNN expects. If that happens, the counter will close.
Much too little
The amount is expected to be far too little to help all those affected. About 53,000 households in the earthquake zone could claim the scheme. Last summer, 80 million euros were awarded in a first application round for the ‘Subsidy for Improvement and Sustainability in Groningen’.
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On Twitter, Groningers give vent to their anger about the ‘lottery’ that would be encouraged by the queue. “I fear that we are fishing behind the net again,” writes Sandra Herkströter, who was allocated place 26603 in the queue.
“First come, first served,” tweeted mayor Adriaan Hoogendoorn of the municipality of Midden-Groningen. “Where’s the legal equality?”
Stomach ache
René Paas, the king’s commissioner in the province of Groningen, is not happy with the state of affairs. “We know that there is not enough money available and that is at odds with the ambition to meet every Groninger”, he said to RTV Noord. “It really gives me a stomachache. It’s terrible that people are forced into rows.”
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