Foreigners face ban from Amsterdam coffee shops
Mayor Femke Halsema wants to clean up the overtouristed city centre and make the local cannabis industry more manageable
An Australian tourist smoking in a coffee shop in Amsterdam during normal times
Credit: MICHEL PORRO /AP
Lost weekends in Amsterdam may be about to go up in smoke after the city’s mayor on Friday announced she wanted to ban foreign tourists from cannabis coffee shops.
The proposal, one of a number included in a plan to shrink the local cannabis market and boost transparency, will be initially put to the city council at the end of January and would include a transition period if eventually adopted.
Childcare benefit scandal victims to get €30,000 compensation
Alexandra van Huffelen, outlining the compensation deal. Photo: Robin van Lonkhuizen ANP
Parents wrongly accused of committing fraud when claiming childcare benefits will be given €30,000 in direct compensation over the next four months, junior finance minister Alexandra van Huffelen has announced, in the wake of the parliamentary inquiry into the scandal.
The cabinet met to discuss the compensation package on Tuesday following the publication of a damning report, which accused ministers, civil servants, MPs and even the courts of failing the parents, some of whom were financially ruined when ordered to pay back cash.
The red light district, deserted during the first lockdown Photo: Alex Nicholls-Lee
Amsterdam in 2025 will have a city centre where a ‘different’ kind of visitor and ‘Amsterdammers want to come’, according to new city plans.
The coronavirus crisis laid bare how certain areas had become almost totally dependent on low-budget tourism, linked with noise, nuisance and locals chased or priced out.
Now, following calls from tourism experts, businesses and local residents to reset the city’s reputation for drugs, sex and lost weekends, the council has proposed 88 far-reaching measures to ensure that after the crisis, things change.
Eva Plijter, a spokeswoman for the council’s inner city team, told DutchNews.nl that the aim is to make the area once again attractive for people to live in and discourage certain kinds of mass tourism.