Local council may be rescuing Kinderdijk windmills from insolvency

Heritage site in financial distress

KINDERDIJK - The foundation which operates the Kinderdijk windmills, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, faces financial distress and may be fighting bankruptcy. According to Dutch broadcaster NOS, the famous windmills are trying to cope with a budget shortfall of €900,000.

The foundation acknowledges it made a number of wrong decisions so that some projects cannot go ahead. The cost of restoring 15 of the 19 windmills is not fully covered by donations made to the foundation.

The foundation is now searching for sponsors to help finance its windmills. It also intends to raise entry tickets for tourists. The foundation says, that entry prices were insufficient to meet the costs.

Sources report that the Kinderdijk windmills will be sold for a symbolic price of one euro to the local municipal council of Nieuw Lekkerland. This means that the council will act as guarantor for the windmills for a sum of one million euros.

Added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1997, the heritage site has the highest concentration of historic windmills anywhere in the world.