DoesED really have to mention all those roaring figures?

Justified questions regarding the growth spurt of Eindhoven

Eindhoven Brainport is growing rapidly, mainly due to the enormous expansion of ASML. Based on the planned growth, plans are being made for 100,000 new homes, for instance. Eindhovens Dagblad not only investigated whether the figures are correct. They were rewarded for this.

Executive councillor Stijn Steenbakkers with the model of Knoop XL, the area at the centre of Eindhoven from PSV stadium to the river Dommel.

rainport. The place in the Netherlands where the future casts its shadow, especially now that chip machine manufacturer ASML has decided to greatly expand (20,000 jobs) on four industrial estates established for this purpose near Eindhoven. So plans are being made by Eindhoven and the joint regional executive, the Eindhoven Metropolitan Area (MRE in Dutch). Mega plans. Not based on guesswork, but on expected developments. The most important of these: the enormous increase in the number of jobs and the population.

The 21 local authorities in the Eindhoven region are assuming that no fewer than 100,000 homes will be built and 72,000 new jobs will be created by 2040. These figures are extremely important because they form the basis for investments of several billion euros in housing, roads, bus connections, industrial estates and other things. But are these figures correct? Haven’t they mainly been devised by executives to make people believe that there is no other option than to grow fast? ED must determine whether all the figures are correct.

No one has a crystal ball that could help in providing the answer, but we can look at the past. We can then see that the Brainport region has already seen a firm increase in the number of jobs. The UWV (Employee Insurance Agency) counted an increase of 20,600 jobs over the 2020-2022 period. Between 2016 and 2024, the growth has been estimated at 50,000 jobs. Keeping ASML’s mega investment in mind, and knowing that this investment will also result in a flood of jobs for suppliers, the expected 72,000 jobs by 2040 is not unreasonable. If you then also consider the already overstretched housing market, in which you will have to build homes anyway to remedy the deficit, you quickly arrive at 100,000 homes.

Saskia Stuiveling Prize

Okay, so the numbers are credible. But are the plans also necessary? ED wants to show that there are always other options. They don’t, as a medium, want to press for a certain outcome; that is up to the politicians. But they do want to ensure that decision makers and people living in the area are as well informed as possible. This resulted in us receiving an honourable mention during the Saskia Stuiveling Prize award ceremony for clear regional political journalism at the beginning of 2024.

ED wants to show
that there are always other options

In our award-winning series on the ‘growth spurt’ in Zuidoost-Brabant, for example, we questioned the basic principle that you can only grow, while, according to experts, this means that we will increasingly cross the boundaries of the environment and the climate. We also shed a different light on the choice for many high-rise buildings to accommodate the population increase.

After all, these decisions affect the lives of everyone in the region

We went to Ghent to show that, despite what the regional executive thinks, a city the size of Eindhoven can indeed have a thriving tram network.

And we addressed the plea from the business community to close Eindhoven Airport and the airbase to make room for housing.

These are examples of other perspectives that show that choices can also turn out differently from decisions made in the board room. After all, these decisions affect the lives of everyone in the region, so everyone is entitled to an opinion. We hope that involvement will grow in this way. And this is in turn important because ultimately everyone has political influence, no matter how small. Even if it is only by placing a cross in the ballot box once every four years.

Joris Roes

Editor-in-chief of ED

PSV

PSV club watcher is ‘Sports Journalist of the Year’

If he is positive, he is called a fan. If he is negative, we are asked how it could even cross our mind, as ED, to write negatively about PSV. You can’t often get it right as a club watcher. As editorial team, we want Rik Elfrink to follow PSV critically. But we also cheer when they win the championship and when they play terrific football with ‘Boszbal’. And we compile a fantastic book about the 25th national title. But if necessary, we also write that they were really weak and powerless. And PSV is not happy with this. They prefer reading the positive viewpoints.

PSV watchers are important for ED. Elfrink’s stories are devoured. He knows everything and everyone at the club, as well as the people who are close to the club and the players. He does not allow himself to be swayed by anyone who tries to influence him. This resulted in him being awarded the title ‘Sports Journalist of the Year’ earlier this year. The Dutch sports press praised his diligence and tenacity in following the champions.

View the PSV celebration

View the book presentation

New on our website and app Now in Veldhoven (and shortly in more local authorities)

ecause we can now measure a lot about online reading behaviour, we know that reviews are very popular among our online readers. People click away on the amateur football round-up on Sundays, for example. And also news and current affairs that start with “What do we know so far about....” are also popular and widely read.

At ED, we closely follow 21 local authorities. They each have their own section on the website and app. Readers can include their favourite local authority in their settings and a single click will show them all the local news in their town.

To make it even easier, we conducted a test in Veldhoven in the autumn. We placed all the news from Veldhoven below each other in a blog. The latest news was always placed at the top and therefore immediately visible. We described each news item in a few lines. We included a link so that people who wanted to read the entire story could do so by clicking on it.

It goes without saying that we are very happy with this success. This is why this approach is being implemented in more and more local authorities.

Placing all the local authority news clearly in one place turned out to be very popular. The stories from Veldhoven have since been read much more often than when they were all listed separately and in a less organised way on our website and app. It goes without saying that we are very happy with this success. This is why this approach is being introduced in more and more local authorities, including Bergeijk and Deurne.