Plans for a more attractive city centre

The Municipality of The Hague, Chamber of Commerce and Stichting Binnenstad have agreed to the new plans for The Hague’s city centre over the 2011-2014 period. The covenant called ‘Naar een complete Haagse Binnenstad’ includes all the activities the three partners will carry out up until 2014 in order to make the city centre more attractive and economically sounder.

According to Deputy Mayor Marjolein de Jong (Culture, City Centre and International Affairs), ‘The Hague’s city centre attracts many visitors and is very important to the local economy. We have to continue to invest in the future in order to compete with other cities. It’s the joint responsibility of the municipality, local businesses and residents.’ 

The covenant for 2011-2014 has ten main points, including constructing additional homes, improving the signposting and making the city centre better accessible. The partners will also work together on keeping public areas clean and safe and they will look for innovative forms of collecting rubbish from businesses in the centre.

The private parties will try to work to have shopping hours extended to the evenings and to have shops open on public holidays.

According to Eric van den Elshout (Chairman of Stichting Binnenstad), ‘The redevelopment of the Grote Markstraat, the construction of the New Hague Passage and the advantages of a car-free city centre make our city centre totally complete as a shopper’s paradise.’

More information can be found on the website of Bureau Binnenstad.