The country’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, has passed a line today in a final statement by a plan for the construction of eight colony houses along the Hooiweg in Wilhelminaoord.
Reason: the houses and gardens border directly on agricultural land where farmers with crop protection products are allowed to spray and those resources would be bad for health. If no additional measures are taken and there are no further restrictions on the use of the agricultural land, the Council of State uses a minimum distance of 50 meters between homes and gardens and the grounds where farmers are allowed to spray with pesticides.
But the colony houses are surrounded on three sides by meadows and fields where lilies and other flower bulbs can be grown for change. Especially for the cultivation of flower bulbs, the growers use many and regular pesticides. The municipality of Westerveld, which has established the housing plan, wrongly assumes that the dairy farmer can only use the leased land as a pasture.
Because hardly sprayed on grasslands. In addition, De Boer leases the grounds of owner’s society, also manager of the UNESCO World Heritage De Koloniën. And he has already threatened to cancel the lease contract if the farmer lets his grounds temporarily use by a neighboring lily.
According to the farmer, he will soon be forced to do so by European rules. Because the EU wants much more alternating cultivation on agricultural land. According to the Council of State, it does not matter for the housing plan whether or not the landowner can terminate a lease contract.
Crucial is what the municipal zoning plan allows and that is fully agricultural use without restrictions. This means that there must be at least a distance of 50 meters between homes and agricultural land without further regulation.
If the plan of the Society of Benevolence wants to take place on eight homes on the Hooiweg, then a number of things have to change. The municipality will either have to adjust the zoning plan and limit agricultural use, or prescribe other specific environmental measures.
Incidentally, the highest administrative court has rejected all other objections to the housing plan. According to the council, there is a need for these homes and they also fit perfectly in the cultural-historical environment of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Only the lack of a spray free zone is the big problem.