Staying home for a rubbish bag
Putting your rubbish bag out onto the pavement is not an easy thing in Maastricht. In the shopping area of the city centre, for example, it is only allowed on Tuesday between 17:00-18:00 hrs. (this is soon to be extended by an hour). If your bag is on the street outside that time, the city can charge you for cleaning costs, which will amount to 171 euro.
This happened to an inhabitant of the Jodenstraat, newspaper De Limburger writes. Despite the fact that Mark Rosier stays home from work especially on Tuesdays so that he can put his rubbish bag out on the street at the right time, his rubbish was found elsewhere. After its contents had been analysed to determine who the owner was, he was presented with a bill. He hasn’t paid yet; after some urging on his part, Rosier is going to have a talk with the city authorities about the incident.
The strict approach fits in with the new measures that alderman John Aarts presented to the city council a few weeks ago. Rubbish continues to be a problem in Maastricht. In the city centre, rubbish bags are all over the place and at the separating stations so much waste other than plastic, tins and drinks cartons (PMD) is thrown in the containers that the processor regularly refuses to accept deliveries.
The council is going to look into new policies in October, but for the time being, there will be ‘waste coaches’, who will help people in problem areas by pointing out the financial advantages of separating waste, the PMD opening will be made smaller to prevent dumping, and there will be more extensive enforcement.
Hole into the past
Regular visitors to the University Library in the city centre have probably noticed: around the corner, on the Kleine Looiersstraat, there has been a large hole in the street for the past two weeks. This has not only resulted in a temporary road closure, but it also reveals a piece of Maastricht’s ‘concealed past’. The subsidence in the road, which, according to De Limburger, was discovered by a student, appears to be the result of the collapse of an underground, centuries-old bridge.
This once passed over a branch of the river Jeker. This small river was a delta before the Romans arrived. After centuries of relocating and filling in, three branches remained in the Middle Ages, one of which flowed through the Kleine and Grote Looiersstraat. When this was filled in in the nineteenth century, the bridge was not torn down but hidden under the new road surface.
Archaeologists who think they are in with a chance, will be let down: the city authorities are opting for swift and safe repairs to the road, they write on their website. They will try to maintain the bridge for possible research in the future.
Unwelcoming letter
‘Don’t come to the Netherlands if you don’t have a room yet’. Various universities sent such messages to upcoming international students to warn them about the rooms shortage last spring. But it didn’t work in Utrecht at any rate, university newspaper DUB writes. Students there ignored the message in droves.
Staying away was not an option for most of them. “I had already been accepted, had paid my tuition fees and already chosen two subjects for September. It was only then that they sent an e-mail in which they say I should reconsider starting my studies if I didn’t have a place to stay”, says a master’s student indignantly. Other students also feel that the letter was unwelcoming. “I would prefer to see Utrecht University building accommodation for its students, instead of frightening the life out of them,” an Italian student complains to DUB.
However, that is not so easy, as universities are often dependent on municipalities and housing corporations. Adapting the selection criteria –another option mentioned by the students – was not possible either; refusing someone for a study programme on the basis of nationality is discrimination. Education minister Robbert Dijkgraaf is having talks with universities on this matter, because some – such as the Universiteit van Amsterdam – want to introduce a quota to limit the international influx for some study programmes.