Snack Bar Owner Has Had Enough of Annoying Elderly People
They hang around outside the snack bar, comment on everyone who walks past, and whistle at every woman. Do you think it’s a group of teenagers? No, it’s a group of around sixty ‘hanging seniors’ who are making life miserable for snack bar owner Arjan Kenter in Winschoten.
Arjan isn’t the only one bothered by the elderly people; the other business owners on the street have had enough of them too. They tried to raise the problems with the municipality, but got nowhere. Until Arjan unscrewed the seats from the municipal benches, so the annoying elderly people could no longer sit anywhere. Within no time, I had received a response from the town hall: that is vandalism, and punishable by law. So he put the seats back, but he does have an appointment with the alderman soon to resolve these problems.
Whistling
So what do those annoying seniors do? They block the sidewalk in front of the snack bar and the other shops, and they are rude to passers-by. ‘More or less the same as young people: hanging around, smoking cigarettes and whistling at women,’ Arjan tells RTL Nieuws. Richard Hensen, the manager of the Hema opposite the snack bar, has also had it with the group. There are two benches in front of his door, for now still with their seats attached. ‘I completely understand his frustration, especially because the municipality isn’t doing anything about it.’
Stop Hanging Around
What would the solution be, according to Arjan and Richard? Get rid of those benches, so the elderly people can no longer hang around. Hensen: ‘You’ve seen it get worse particularly over the past five years. On Friday and Saturday afternoons, it’s an invasion of elderly people. It’s fine if people want to do something, but I don’t think the intention is for them to sit in front of my shop continuously.’
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Source: RTL Nieuws and RTV Noord
