Speaking: students Joris Vromans and Tom Busscher on the Lelylijn

The Student Advisory Committee (SAC) Groningen has conducted research into the opinions and interests of young people under 25 on Lelylijn. Students Tom Busscher, Joris Vromans and Rebekka de Witte conducted the research. Tom and Joris tell how they approached it and what the main results are.

The Student Advisory Committee, or SAC Groningen for short, is a consultancy in which students work on spatial issues. Tom and Joris are both studying Spatial Planning & Design at the University of Groningen. Tom will begin a master’s degree in Environment & Infrastructure Planning next year.

How did your survey come about?
“Our survey builds on the results of the 2023 online consultation, where more than 11,000 residents gave their views on the Lelylijn,” Tom says. “We attended the presentation of the results of the online consultation. Very interesting! But the results did not yet reveal how certain target groups, such as young people, thought about the Lelylijn. De Lelylijn is not ready for another 20-30 years, and today’s young people are the workers of the future. We wondered what they thought about the Lelylijn. We struck up a conversation with Wilko Huyink of the project organization Lelylijn and suggested we investigate whether there is a difference between the opinions of young people under 25 and the rest of the Netherlands. The project organization Lelylijn saw something in this!”

How did you conduct the research?
“We started with the database from the online consultation,” Joris explains. “We looked specifically at young people and focused on three main questions: What do young people see as benefits and opportunities? What do they see as disadvantages and concerns? Do they have any suggestions for the Lelylijn?”

Tom: “To each type of answer we gave a certain code. Together with Rebekah (there were three of us in total) we spent many hours coding. Many fun, interesting and sometimes funny answers came up. We also read very interesting suggestions and thoughts we had never thought about ourselves.”

What are the main results?
Tom: “We looked at the difference between young people under 25 and the rest of the Netherlands. What emerged was that young people thought it was important to make the areas in the Northern Netherlands more accessible. Working people thought it was more important to make Randstad more accessible.”

Joris: “Overall, there were more young people who found the Lelylijn a useful investment. Young people are often dependent on public transport and therefore see its usefulness. They had few concerns about the budget, probably because many young people have less work experience on large projects and also have not yet had to deal with large budgets.”

On May 27 you are organizing a youth debate on Lelylijn. What do you want to achieve with this debate?
“Our research shows that young people like to actively participate in the Lelylijn study and that there is a need for information,” says Joris. “We are organizing a youth debate to gain more insight into young people’s opinions, but also to work with the project organization to share information and answer questions.”

Tom: “I sit with Rebekah on the Advisory Board of the project organization Lelylijn. We are the only young people at that table and would like to speak on behalf of a whole group of young people. The youth debate is an important first step in creating a constituency and representing the views of young people.”

Want to participate in the youth debate? Read more and sign up!

View the results and research report here.