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Zuidoost wants cheaper heating

29 June 2008 - The Zuidoost district council wants power company Nuon to put a ten-euro per month price increase for district heating on hold. Nuon argues the price increase is a consequence of higher fuel prices.

The PvdA is going to ask visitors of the popular Summer Festival to sign a petition against the higher tariff. The council also wants the municipality, a major Nuon shareholder, to put pressure on the energy company.

Parties in Zuidoost say district heating, which uses residual heat and is therefore environmentally friendly, should not be discouraged. In the national Parliament, coalition parties PvdA, CDA and CU have presented a motion calling for lower tariffs, claiming that power companies abuse their monopoly position.

Last year, the General Accounting Office concluded that district heating tariffs are not set in an 'objective and transparent' manner. However, it also found that Zuidoost residents paid 17.85 euro per GJ, whereas residents in other areas pay up to 22.55 euro per GJ.

In the past, the renters' organisation Huurdersvereniging Amsterdam has argued that the district heating rates may be comparatively low in Amsterdam, but that they are nevertheless too high.

On his weblog, Henk de Boer (CDA) suggests that Muriel Dalgliesh (PvdA) would be involved in a conflict of interest because she supported the Nuon motion yet lives in one of the 12,000 houses in Zuidoost with district heating. Dalgliesh is not impressed. "Everything is becoming a conflict of interest in Zuidoost".

There has even been talk of Mart van de Wiel (OZO) being involved in a conflict of interest, because he presented a motion against the use of thermoplastic paint for road marking, which would create a slippery surface that may cause motorcycle accidents. Van de Wiel rides a motorcycle.

Conflicts of interest have become something of an obsession in Zuidoost since last year's publication of a report on council members voting on subsidies for organisations they were themselves involved in.

Photo: Adstream / Flickr

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