Policy areas of the provinces
Provinces are mainly active in the areas of traffic and transport, welfare, the environment and economic development. Public order and security are more municipal issues, and the water boards are responsible for water management. Indeed provinces spend little on the two latter policy areas.
Extra spending on traffic and transport has been budgeted by Limburg, Gelderland and North Brabant for the following in 2007:
• Limburg: extra spending on the Parkstad outer ring road and on public transport.
• Gelderland: improvement of existing road network to increase capacity, improvement of existing cycle paths and construction of new cycle paths. In addition, cycling is to be stimulated by better quality cycle routes and constructing the missing links in cycle route networks.
• North Brabant is to start improving the Den Bosch ring road, construction of major road links in Tilburg and the realisation of the last segment of the A4.