Delft city council is being forced to sack civil servants and put up local taxes to pay for the massive redevelopments of the area around the train station, the Volkskrant reports on Wednesday.

The Spoorzone project involves placing part of the track in a tunnel as well as major residential developments but is proving too expensive for the city, the Volkskrant says.

Even with the spending cuts and job losses, the project is still down €4m on its current budget. ‘We have a major financial problem,’ finance alderman Aletta Hekker said. ‘We cannot solve this without the help of national and provincial government. We cannot finalise the budget.’

Services

Delft, which has a population of 100,000, has to save €16m a year but cannot come up with more than €12m. ‘If we have to make cuts to make up for the missing €4m, our services will be in danger,’ Hekker said.

Delft’s precarious finances mean the city is under special supervision from Zuid-Holland province. Eight of the other 403 Dutch local authority areas are in a similar position.

Part of the problem in Delft has been caused by property developers pulling out of plans to build 1,200 new homes. Despite opening the development up to all-comers, there have been no takers yet for the plots, the paper says.