Harm steps through his garden fence with a flowerpot in his hand. The plant that is in it has now been Morsdead, but brightened up the sidewalk in front of his house at the beginning of this year. “For my own safety, I had put some plants here, because I am often driven from my socks by cyclists who do not get off,” he tells NH.
Now Harm says he can take a beating himself, but he is very worried about his elderly neighbors. They often shuffle over the sidewalk behind their walker. “If that goes wrong, they might break a hip.”
Police at the door
He asked the municipality several times for a solution, but it didn’t come. So he only thought of one himself. The sidewalk cyclists were not so happy with that. On images of Harm’s video doorbell you can see that the pots are sometimes kicked on the side.
It does not take long before the police are at his door. “They received a report that people had complained, because they could not cycle over the sidewalk. Then I also asked that agent if she heard what she told herself and she actually had to laugh a bit about it.”
A beer less
But the promotion does have consequences. Harm receives a letter from the municipality: he has to remove the flower pots or pay a fine of 1,500 euros. Because he left them, he has to pay that fine now.
This Tuesday he can still defend himself during a hearing. “But I have already been notified that my defense has been rejected.”
By telling his story, Harm hopes to get the municipality moving to tackle the sidewalk cyclists. He ultimately wants to pay the fine. “Then I drink a beer less.”
Reaction of the municipality
A spokesperson for the municipality of Haarlemmermeer says that Harms flower pots who are dependent on a wheelchair, walker or mobility scooter or with a pram in the way. “For the same reason, we also no longer place so -called ‘bicycle locks’: two bicycle nies that are placed in such a way that they cannot cycle through it, but so that people can continue to continue the road slaloming.”