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Several inhabitants of Røldal in Ullensvang are in rebellion and think that the town should consider moving to the neighboring municipality and county in the south: Suldal in Rogaland.
The background is that municipal politicians just before Christmas decided to withdraw the offer from the local hospital and work out other alternative offers. Six positions must be removed.
This Christmas a signature campaign has been launched to lay the foundations for a change of municipality in the mountain town, which has about 350 inhabitants.
It already has more than 200 people signed.
– There was a lot of commitment after the budget meeting before Christmas. Most of the people in Røldal are disappointed and see no future in the new municipality, says Jarle Sandal in the spontaneously appointed action group.
Shop protest
As of January 1, 2020, Odda Municipality and Ullensvang herad were merged into Ullensvang Municipality.
There have already been financial problems in Hardanger Township. In the budget for 2021, the city council had to find spending cuts of more than NOK 100 million.
Roger Lynghammar will start as a camper for nursing and care services in Røldal this fall. Three days after he started working, he was informed that the municipal administration proposed to remove the ten hospital places and also six places.
– There is a lot of uncertainty around it, because we know little about what the service offer should be afterwards. And jobs are obviously important in a small town like Røldal, he tells NRK.
It wasn’t just the Røldøls who protested the budget plans. Politicians were greeted with torchlight processions, posters and slogans on other current issues as the important city council meeting began on December 17.
DISTANCE: Good distance between politicians at the city council meeting in Ullensvang before Christmas. The distance was also political, in the demanding budget debate.
Photo: Tale Hauso / NRK
“Civil war”
The next day, the word “civil war” appeared in the headline of the summary article in the local newspaper Hardanger Folkeblad.
Avisa writes that the municipal council decided to ask the councilor to make a plan of what a reorganization of nursing and care services in the municipality should look like.
“The plan will show how the closure of hospital places can be replaced by more home care and more residences,” was stated in the proposal of the cooperation party Ap, V, KrF and SV, which was approved by 17 to 16 votes.
– Restructuring, do not close
Therefore, Mayor Roald Aga Haug (Labor Party) believes that this is not a closure of the Røldal hospital.
– We have approved a change and will look for more places of care 24 hours a day instead of hospitals, says Haug.
The decision states that ‘Utneheimen and Bygdaheimen in Røldal will exist as important institutions, organized as a housing / old-age pension association and / or residences under a common roof. [ …]».
But the Røldølans want to say this is Remove the hospital supply and the staff in need, and let the municipality do it without having a plan for what is coming in the city.
The uprising and the question of the change of municipality, the mayor comments the following:
– We just have to make sure that there are initiatives of this type. Our goal now is to ensure that as many people as possible receive the best possible health services in Røldal and the rest of the municipality.
MAYOR: Roald Aga Haug, Mayor of Ullensvang Township for the Labor Party.
Photo: Tale Hauso
The full cup
Since before, there have been years of dissatisfaction in Røldal with the fact that they think they get so little that, for the income, hydroelectric development in the village gives a quarter of a year to the municipality.
Eliminating the hospital’s offer in next year’s budget will be too much for the Røldølans to accept.
– We have a pretty full glass of this, and when the decision on the old house came, it just overflowed. Sometimes you have to defend the people, and that is what is happening now, says Sandal in the action group.
– We have three important things to do in Røldal: the hospital, the school and the doctor. And now they want to take one thing, something to do with safety for us who are beginning to age, says resident Oddbjørn Lynghammer, who has also gotten involved.
IN THE MIDDLE OF THE VILLAGE: Sjukeheimen (in the middle of the picture) is in the middle of Røldal. Now the villagers are struggling to keep the offer as it is today.
Photo: Leif Rune Løland / NRK
Change of municipality
It is far from unusual for settlements to shift township and county boundaries to change:
