Six votes were missing. The landfill referendum is invalid

The local referendum in Němčice nad Hanou in Prostějovsk, which concerned the possibility of expanding the municipal waste dump on the land of this town, is invalid. It was six votes short of the required 35 percent voter turnout. 541 voters took part in the referendum today in the village, their opinion was not clear, said the mayor of the village Martin Emst (Yes to Němčicím). The representatives will decide on the next step.

Němčice nad Hanou has approximately 2,100 inhabitants, of which there are approximately 1,600 voters. In the referendum, people answered the question of whether they agreed or disagreed with the expansion of the existing waste dump in place of the old waste dump, which was previously on land owned by the city. The current landfill in Němčice nad Hanou can be in operation until 2025. According to the mayor, thanks to the expansion of the landfill, the municipality would cover the period until 2029, when the facility for the production of solid alternative fuel in Přerov is to be put into operation. However, part of the population did not agree with the intention of the Recovera company from the Veolia group to expand the landfill, so the municipality announced a local referendum.

According to the mayor, 541 voters participated in the referendum. “The condition of 35 percent of authorized persons was not met by six people, so the referendum is not valid. Of these, 271 people spoke in favor of expanding the landfill, another 263 people said no. Seven votes were invalid. For the municipality, this means that I will have to call the works council to take a position on the referendum,” said the mayor.

According to him, despite the invalid referendum, the opinion of the residents is balanced. “That society in the city is split in half, for me it’s a signal that the landfill ends in 2025,” he said. At the same time, he pointed out that this will mean the end of above-standard income for the municipality, the limitation of investments in the future or the need to take out a loan over time. “If the landfill ends in 2025 and the terminal facility in Přerov will be in full operation by Recovera in 2029, we will have to provide a bridge between 2025 and 2029 and decide where to go with the waste and how much it will cost us,” added the mayor. The municipality received 22 million crowns per year for landfill fees in the last three years; if they do not expand the landfill, they will lose these fees.