Meppel without historic canals and beautiful bridges. Fortunately you can’t imagine it. But it would have made little sense, or Meppel had perished in the 70s to an ambitious traffic plan.
Former journalist Ed van Tellingen wrote the book about those plans – and how they went under pressure from the De Grachtwacht action group and many others – The Wonder van Meppel. Van Tellingen was also active for the canal guard at the time.
The book was necessary because according to Van Tellingen this is a forgotten piece of history in Meppel. “Everyone is always pleasantly surprised in Meppel, but when you say:” Did you know that it was written to death in the 70s? “, They look at you strangely,” he says in the Radio Drenthe program Cassata.
‘Henkie Beton’, as Mayor Henk Eijsink was certainly not affectionately mentioned, the canals wanted to fill the canals in the 70s to let a wide traffic road go over it. The Bleekerseiland would also become one large parking lot for four hundred cars. “By the way, Eijsink was a good driver, but he had no view of the cultural history and the past of the water -rich Meppel,” says Van Tellingen.
Through the now notorious ‘red book’ that was delivered door-to-door, Meppelers were informed of the municipal plans (design zoning plan Center Meppel). A lot of excitement did not arise yet, but a small action group eventually threw the bat in the hen house.
Van Tellingen was one of the Meppelers who thought: we won’t let this happen. “We put the wick in the powder barrel,” he recalls. “You noticed with the demonstrations and signature campaigns that many Meppelers thought this too. We couldn’t cope with the fact that the canals would close. There was just no voice that put it.”
Ed van Tellingen in the 70s. Text continues after the photo: