As of Thursday morning, 1,628 people had signed a petition started by a resident of Smilde calling for the FEBO for flowers to remain open after the municipality said it was unauthorised.
Translation by Traci White
The tulip automat at the Melanick flower shop in Smilde opened last weekend and was a big hit. But on Tuesday, representatives on behalf of the municipality paid the owners, Jan and Yvonne Vos, a visit to inform them that the flower wall was an unauthorised structure and needed to be shut down.
The business owners were frustrated by the seemingly random nature of the decision, and they were evidently not the only ones: Dagblad van het Noorden reports that Hilda Veltink, who also lives in the Drenthe village of Smilde, started a petition calling for the clever flower selling invention to remain open.
“The municipality of Midden Drenthe wants the flower automat to be removed. The automat is a solution for preventing theft, and we want it to stay!” the petition description reads. Melanick has been selling flowers and bulbs from their home for a decade, including a small wooden stand in front of their home that operated on an honour’s system for payment which was taken advantage of one too many times.
The owners of the shop say they have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and the media attention for their case. The municipality said earlier this week that the Vos’s would receive a letter from them explaining on what grounds the structure was unauthorised. Yvonne Vos says that until they receive the letter, they will continue selling the flowers from the device.
Photo source: Gábor Juhász/Wikipedia
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