Recently, there has been much talk about SRRC Lenie‘t Hart’s possible plans for moving. Also, there has been much speculation about a possible new location. A variety of reports have appeared in the media with news varying from ‘SRRC wishes to renovate’ (this is not true; the SRRC wants to rebuild completely) to ‘SRRC is not getting enough money from the council for the rebuild’ (this too is incorrect as the SRRC is not getting any money at all). Because of this, we have listed all the facts in the following article.
The main building of our present centre was built in 1979. The first adjustments and extensions were added in 1982. In 1986, a second set of alterations were made. The last alterations, made in 1993, extended the rehabilitation capacity to approximately 80 seals a year. Also, a couple of pools with water purification facilities were added and, above all, the visitors centre was added.
Over 14 years after the last alterations were made it has become clear that more seals are facing problems on a structural basis. Also, the seals that are brought in are much sicker than before. The number of seals that has to be rehabilitated has risen to 200 a year. The water purification, based on 15 year-old technology and knowledge, is outdated and is struggling with the extra load. Some of the pipes have already been in the ground for 28 years. We need more quarantine rooms; for the last couple of years we have been forced to improvise by using a large tent. What’s more, at the moment there are three extra tents with a total surface area of 470 m2. Besides that, the number of visitors is (thankfully) still increasing every year. But every holiday and every weekend our visitors get jammed in our visitors centre. In short, we need to expand our facilities for working and providing care for the seals, as it is our aim to always keep the quality of seal care and visitor information as high as possible. However, the exploitation costs can not rise, because we don’t have the budget. The care we provide for the seals has been paid for by our supporters for the last 35 years. We are very grateful for this and we hope that it will stay that way. With the help of our supporters we have been able to draw up our building-plan. However, the actual construction will have to be paid for by grants and funds.
Initially, it looked like the council of the Marne-district, to which Pieterburen belongs, thought positively about our expansion plans. Since 1999, we have been working with the council on the design of a large Master-plan (based on provincial and European grants), which would benefit everyone in Pieterburen; local entrepreneurs, other foundations in the village such as Domies Toen (botanical garden), the Oud-Groninger molen (old Groninger mill) and the Gronings Landschap (Landscape of Groningen). The SRRC was to gain by the plan as well, because by using the promised funding as our collateral, we were able to look for additional funding and financing. This was what we were busy with. However, in June 2006, the SRRC was told by the Master-plan-makers that the sum planned for adjustments to the SRRC’s visitors’ facilities, water purification facilities and quarantine rooms had not been included in the Master-plan total.
The Master-plan would only be investing money elsewhere in the village and in other foundations. Furthermore, wholly against the SRRC’s wishes, 1.5 million euros had been reserved for a huge new car park right next door to the SRRC, while the existing car park could easily be updated by using simple means. The Master-plan grants (worth at least 6 million euros) were going to go to everyone who benefited from the SRRC’s proximity, but nothing was going to be invested in the SRRC, and so also the seals got nothing.
Because this made all the plans that the SRRC had developed in the meantime redundant, the SRRC- staff got in touch with a couple of experts and sat round the table with them discussing what would be the best solution in the long run: to renovate and expand the existing centre or to consider building again from scratch. After careful analysis it became clear that in the present circumstances building from scratch had many advantages over adjusting, improving and restoring the technically outdated existing building again, as it had already become unpractical through earlier renovations.
That decision has far reaching consequences: It is practically impossible to pull down the existing centre whilst building a new one at the same time in the same location. The present location is therefore not an option, so a new location has to be found. We posed this question to the ‘Marne’ council first: Do you have a suitable, attractive new location for us that meets our programme of requirements within the ‘Marne’ district? Unfortunately they did not. The council is holding on to their point of view that the SRRC can easily build in its current location. We soon told the ‘Marne’ council that our next step would be to look outside the boundaries of the ‘Marne’ district. Subsequently, we had enthusiastic reactions from many coastal districts in Groningen and Friesland.
Talking about such an investment means taking many factors into consideration. Firstly, it should be suitably situated for the seals. It should of course be near the Wadden Sea. Furthermore, the available space and good infrastructure are important so that the new SRRC has easy access and is easy to reach, hopefully also with public transport. It should be an area that our visitors would find interesting to visit. We are asking the ‘new’ council to help us plan, organise and help us find funding for the construction of the new building. For one thing is certain, the SRRC does not have the budget to build a new building, and it is not going to use the money that its supporters donate for seal care. This is why it is crucial that the costs for seal care don’t increase: With a new, efficiently equipped building and a modern water purification system that should be possible. At the moment, the SRRC is losing at least € 50.000,- a year because our water purifying facilities are insufficient to be able to re-use the water.
Meanwhile, a delegation of the SRRC’s management and staff has visited various other districts, from Delfzijl to Harlingen. In the following weeks the management will be deciding which councils it wants to have further talks with.
Naturally, the district in which the SRRC decides to settle stands to gain much too. The centre brings along with it at least 200.000 visitors a year, who will spend money in the area. Recent studies show that thanks to our visitors there are jobs for 350 people in the tourist trade in the area, and the hotel and catering industry in the near vicinity of the present SRRC have an annual turnover of one million euros. We think this is all great. However, our main objective is to sensibly rehabilitate seals and release healthy seals back into the sea. Our leading concerns are for the seals; it is in their interest that we build them a better shelter.27-02-2007 Source: SRRC Lenie 't Hart
