Stomach bug in Varberg – tough budget in Laholm

Around 90 children at Furubergsskolan in Varberg fell ill with stomach flu, and the school remained closed on Friday afternoon. In Laholm, the draft budget for 2027 is expected to show a shortfall of SEK 20.4 million, while new building permits are said to create jobs in the county.

Stomach bug closes school in Varberg – 90 children ill

Furubergsskolan in Varberg Municipality remained closed on Friday afternoon after around 90 children fell ill with a stomach bug. A municipality is the local authority responsible, among other things, for compulsory schooling. Already on Wednesday morning, around 40 pupils were at home sick, and on Thursday, 70 pupils were ill in the morning and around 90 at lunchtime, according to the school principal.

The school contacted the infection control authority, which urged that the premises be sanitized. The service management said that sanitization would take half a day, and the school decided to close before lunch on Friday. The school is open as usual again and hopes that the sanitization will be sufficient so that no more children become infected over the weekend. Hallands Nyheter was the first to report the outbreak. SVT Nyheter Halland

Red Cross in Laholm: “We are not a rubbish tip”

The Red Cross second-hand shop Kupan in Laholm receives large quantities of donations, but far from everything can be sold on. Clothes must be intact, clean and in good condition, and porcelain must not be chipped. Yet items are left outside the door despite signs stating that donations should be made during opening hours, and discarded goods are taken for recycling every week – sometimes requiring two trips. “We are not a rubbish tip. There is a difference between second hand and a flea market,” says the operations manager.

The association has 12 free visits for waste disposal, and these ran out as early as in March. After that, each additional visit costs around 380 kr, which according to the Red Cross’s own calculation amounts to nearly 15 000 kr per year. The municipality states that special treatment is not possible because the Red Cross is counted as one association among others. The association also runs Fritidsbanken on behalf of the municipality, where residents can borrow sports and leisure equipment free of charge, and it has nearly 100 volunteers. The appeal is to leave only items that are intact, clean and saleable during the shop’s opening hours. Laholms Tidning

Laholm Municipality: deficit of 20.4 million SEK

The governing majority Ansvar för Laholm presents a tough budget proposal for 2027. The municipality expects a deficit of 20.4 million SEK, which will be covered with surpluses from previous years, while the tax rate remains unchanged at 21.40 SEK. During 2027, the operations will be reviewed to identify savings and efficiency improvements totalling 40 million SEK before 2028. Achieving the planned results will simultaneously require improvements of 45 million SEK in 2028 and 80 million SEK in 2029.

The Social Committee receives an additional allocation of just over 56 million SEK, while the Education Committee receives nearly 12 million SEK. A committee is a political group responsible for part of the municipality's operations. Altogether, the majority wants to allocate 2.07 billion SEK to ongoing operations in 2027. In its shadow budget, the Sweden Democrats propose, among other things, 2 million SEK for neglected pavements and half a million SEK for bridge repairs. The budget will be adopted by Laholm municipal council, the municipality's highest decision-making body, on 24 November. Laholms Tidning

Building permits to create new jobs in Laholm and Hylte

In Laholm Municipality, Spitze, which manufactures packaging machines, is allowed to expand its factory in Skottorp by 4 300 square metres and add 21 new parking spaces. The expansion exceeds the permitted building rights in the detailed plan by 1 136 square metres, which according to the newspaper amounts to 17 percent. A detailed plan determines what may be built at a site. The municipality’s officials wanted to reject the application, but the politicians on the municipal planning board, which handles building matters, approved it. According to the board’s chair, the expansion could create around 50 new jobs within three to four years.

In Hyltebruk in Hylte Municipality, Magnora Data Center has received a building permit for a data centre on an empty site along road 26 Nissastigen. According to the company, the establishment could create 300 jobs during the construction phase and then around 100 jobs when the facility is operational, with operations expected to begin around 2029. The company is in dialogue with the electricity network company Eon about the power supply, and the application also needs to be reviewed by Energimarknadsinspektionen. Laholms Tidning SVT Nyheter Halland

Three people arrested for serious drug offences

Three people were arrested last week at an address in Halmstad with a large quantity of drugs. One of them is an artist and influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers and has been interviewed in the media about how he left crime behind. The people were arrested on Thursday afternoon on probable grounds of suspicion of serious drug offences. Being arrested means that a court has decided that the person must remain in custody while the investigation is ongoing. SVT Nyheter Halland

LFK building a new team after relegation

Laholms FK has lost its place in Ettan. The defeat against Skövde was the final straw, while Eskilsminne won its match 3-0 against Åtvidaberg and secured the promotion spot. The team captain says that it still has not quite sunk in and that everything feels empty. Attendance has increased during the year, averaging 372 people per match, the seventh-highest figure in the league, and around 20 volunteer match hosts have got involved with the home matches.

The sports director is now to contact every player as soon as possible and hopes that as many as possible will stay. Some players may want to continue at a higher level, while others have studies or other plans. The question of coaching and the cooperation with Halmstads BK also need to be reviewed. The goal is for LFK not to remain in division two for long. Laholms Tidning

In brief

• New images show how the planned reactors at Ringhals are intended to look on the Värö Peninsula, and according to the supplementary consultation material, a total of six Natura 2000 areas, protected natural areas, may now be affected. SVT Nyheter Halland
• Eon wants to buy 1.5 hectares of the 10-hectare industrial area at Luhrpasset in Strömsnäsbruk for an ultra-fast charging station for heavy vehicles, which according to the plan is to be completed within two years. Laholms Tidning