Siljan, Siljan municipality | Population increase of 0.3 per cent. – Would have liked it higher

That’s what Dag Jøran Myrvang (Labor Party) says, who is on the municipal council.

Soon the “Annual Report 2023” will be reviewed there, soberly the description is as follows:

“The number of inhabitants in the municipality increased to 2,382. The net increase in the number of inhabitants was 7 people, which corresponds to a population increase of 0.3 per cent. The birth surplus is 5 and net immigration is 2 people. The national average shows a population growth of 1.1 per cent. Vestfold and Telemark had a population growth of 1.0 per cent.”

Money from the state

– It is clear that we have set ourselves higher goals, but have not reached them. It is important not to have a population decline because that leads to cuts in the frame transfers from the state, states Dag Jøran Myrvang.

Mayor Elisabeth Hammer (Christian People’s Party) says for her part:

– All municipalities want population growth. We in Siljan therefore work purposefully to be a good housing municipality; we hope that a good nursery school and school, in addition to beautiful plots ready for building, at a lower price than the big cities, will attract more residents.

Former mayor, now deputy mayor, Kjell Sølverød (Centre Party), is, as before, of the opinion that lower land prices are the way to go to increase population growth:

– The pandemic and increased costs have taken their toll, and progress has not turned out quite as we had planned. But things are loosening up a bit now, four new houses are to be built soon. We must continue like this.

176th place

In the annual report it also appears that the operating result for the municipality is minus 0.27 per cent; last year it was 0.59 per cent. The average for the country is 0.8 percent.

Generally:

“On the Municipal Barometer, Siljan municipality is in 176th place in the ranking among the country’s municipalities in the final edition on 10 August 2023. This is a decrease of 15 places from the previous year. On Agenda Kaupang’s quality index of Norway’s best-governed municipalities, Siljan is in 97th place.”

The municipal director writes that a “persistent scarcity of resources characterizes the situation, and the wave of elderly people will increase the needs even further in the coming years”. He is aware that “vulnerability in the organization is increasing” – and concludes:

“If the cooperation on service development in Grenland does not produce the necessary results, boundary changes between Greenland’s municipalities can also be put on the agenda.”

Good tax revenues

The mayor comments:

– There are tight finances in Siljan municipality, which many municipalities are experiencing. An operating profit in the red means that expenses are higher than income. Nevertheless, it was better than budgeted due to, among other things, higher tax revenues, and that employees are flexible and go to great lengths to make everyday life go round. They should be very grateful for that.

Water and refugees

The annual report also contains this feedback about water:

“The goal of delivering enough water, good and safe water to everyone through an efficient water supply has been achieved in 2023.

The annual fee for the water supply is lower in Siljan than the average elsewhere in the county and significantly lower than comparable municipalities. Like other municipalities, in Siljan, an increase is expected in the future for the replacement of old wiring.”

15 Ukrainian refugees were resettled in 2023, this has mostly been solved by using own housing earmarked for this purpose.

2023 was a year of limited construction activity – and consequently fewer construction cases.

In terms of population, it is worth registering that a new outdoor section at Loppedåpan kindergarten is to be built.

Otherwise, when it comes to the population of Siljan, the county council has this in mind:

“Siljan has had a weak population growth in recent years. In the period 2019–2023, the population has increased by 2.0 per cent or 46 people.

In the last couple of years, the municipality has particularly had net domestic migration. There is particularly a lot of moving between Siljan, Skien, Porsgrunn, Larvik and Oslo.”

It goes without saying that Siljan municipality had the best population increase in the country in the second quarter of 2019 – 34 more inhabitants and an increase of 1.44 per cent. The focus on land and housing must have been decisive factors.