Guided tours have been given on the Chemelot industrial complex in Sittard-Geleen since Friday, to give local residents the opportunity to get to know and understand the business park better.
There is a storm on the tours, says director of Chemelot Loek Radix Saturday in L1mburg Central.
‘Clarifying’
Director Radix thinks it is very important for the image to open the gates and show what developments are going on. “My experience is that that is enlightening, people look at it with a different view once they have been there and have heard what is happening.”
The tour begins with a half-hour introduction, followed by an hour of touring the grounds. The eight planned tours are already almost full.
‘Steel wall’
Chemelot is a business park of about 800 hectares, with 160 factories. Radix: “From the outside it looks like a steel wall, but on the site it itself is very spacious. Clean, tidy with lots of nature. A lot of people are impressed when they see that.”
Due to company secrets, filming is not allowed during the tour, explains director Radix. “Because you don’t want to put a police officer in there checking every photo.”
Seam of the stocking
It is still only a trial period, but if there is enough interest, more ‘school trips’ will be planned in the future. According to Radix, there were many questions among the participants during the first tour on Friday: “Of course there have been some incidents in recent weeks. People still want to know the bottom line. What happened, is it dangerous, is it dangerous?” safety at risk.” According to the director, it is important to know what local residents are concerned about.
Nuisance
In recent years, Chemelot has made increasing efforts to provide information to local residents, for example about nuisance caused by flares. That is the combustion of (residual) gases from chemical installations.
Unfortunately, according to Radix, the nuisance itself cannot be removed. “We are on the right track, but it’s just annoying. Especially at the weekend, especially when the weather is nice and everyone is in the garden. We are also terribly disappointed, it costs claws full of money.”