With the choice of expansion the hair towards the south and southwest, Defense hopes to have to buy the least people compared to other options. Defense told this tonight at the information meeting in Van der Valk in Assen.
About three hundred people registered for this. One of them admits honestly with five e -mail addresses to have booked several time slots so as not to be set off. It says a lot about the dedication and concerns of the neighborhood.
The Ministry of Defense also sees that the turnout is great. “In comparison with the meetings in other provinces, Drenthe is very interested,” says Lieutenant Colonel Egge Jan de Jonge. “I think that has to do with the big impact on the community. That’s why many people want to come by.”
The Ministry of Defense will expand the De Haar training ground at Assen with 300 hectares and has to buy the land of farmers and individuals for this. About eight farmers are affected with their business, mostly land -bound. Similarly Martin Martens and his wife. They come to the meeting for more information about the claim that the Ministry of Defense recently laid on their country.
“Also to see if we can change something about those plans and what the effect is on our company. How is it going? A lot comes to us. They want a large area of my company and I can’t miss that land.”
According to Lieutenant Colonel de Jonge, the impact is the least large and where as few people and companies as possible had to be moved. Many visitors have their doubts about this. “Someone has scattered his family there and will soon lose his country, that will have such emotional value. I miss that empathy,” argues councilor Gineke Radix-Feijen (positive ahead).
“The A28 and the TT Circuit are two huge nitrogen faucets that do not close. What the future still has the Witterveld at all. Go there anyway,” argues another resident.
But using the Natura 2000 area Het Witterveld during exercises is really not possible, according to the Ministry of Defense. “From the Witterveld, which we also investigated at the request of residents, it appears that you can make very poor use of it,” says De Jonge. “It is an unsafe area of the shooting range. The peat bog of the area is seriously affected if we go through it as soldiers. And the third: for soldiers, Hoogveen is difficult to practice, because then you will be in the water until your knees. Landing with a helicopter is impossible, then we should stand out.”
The option to use agricultural land ‘hybrid’ is also not obvious, according to De Jonge. Last Thursday, a group of local residents came up with that proposal in the municipality of Midden-Drenthe in the hope of at least partially using their country. This has been done earlier in West Germany. “That is mainly intended by the occurrence of many vehicles and where you have very large training grounds,” De Jonge explains. “It’s not obvious here, but we’re going to see what is possible.”
A farmer states that the Ministry of Defense would have been able to buy him out completely. With a snack away everywhere, according to him, no farmer does not have a profitable company. According to De Jonge, the Ministry of Defense therefore sits down with stakeholders and stewards to arrive at a good arrangement together. Another farmer who falls just outside the search area says that he has already had a visit from one of the farmers who is being completely bought out. “People now explore their options,” he says. “Logical, where do you still have to go?”
Martens also sees it happen. “The soil hunger here is pretty big. The prices are going through the roof. I also see no opportunities to get ground. Experience shows that Defense does not pay so well that you have a good chance with it,” he says, pointing to his father’s family business and his uncle who had to disappear from the current training ground earlier. “It will really be a challenge.”
Residents also have questions about helicopter use. For both Havelte and the surroundings around the hair, a doubling of the number of helicopter movements is expected. “I have horses in the meadow and I am curious how they will react. I am not bothered yet, but maybe later,” says a visitor from Havelte. Geert van Dijken from Bovensmilde also wonders what will soon be marked of helicopter use. “I think that’s a point. Nobody can tell me anything about that so far.”
The municipality of Midden-Drenthe helps residents with the preparation of views. That is a formal way to object to the plans. The Ministry of Defense takes into account that a lot of this will follow from the region. “I think people will do everything to indicate that it is not a good plan,” says De Jonge. “The State Secretary has said several times: we protect what is dear to our dear from the Ministry of Defense. That is why we need more space. But we understand very well that people also protect what their dear is and that is where they live and work.”
Martens is also working on an opinion. Martens: “We don’t go to the slaughter like a Mak Lammetje and work on everything.”