The large yet to be built solar noise barrier along the Naarderbos will be ‘a disaster for nature’. That is the opinion of the provincial Party for the Animals. This is due to the planned massive felling of thousands of trees to make room for the noise barrier. There will be protests against the plan next Saturday.
There has been talk for a long time about building a large solar noise barrier along the highway. The embankment must ensure that the residents of the adjacent residential area do not experience noise nuisance from the highway. About forty households have campaigned for a long time for the arrival of the noise barrier.
Big and wide
The wall should be there in about three years. It is a large and wide rampart of about eight hundred meters long and four meters high. The rampart will be covered with solar panels, so that sustainable energy can be generated.
The construction of the solar noise barrier does have major consequences. Before construction, at least four thousand trees and bushes must be removed to make room for the solar noise barrier.
Disaster for nature
The planned felling of trees is a surprise to the provincial faction of the Party for the Animals, which calls the cutting before the arrival of the solar noise barrier a ‘bizarre decision’. “It sounds very nice: a noise barrier that also generates electricity and would therefore contribute to solving the energy crisis, but it is forgotten that our nature is also under great pressure. The fact that four thousand trees have to be cut down is really unbelievable,” says Ines Kostic.
Party member Ilona Haas adds: “Trees are our ally against climate change. In the longer term they are indispensable for a healthy living environment. Cutting down 4,000 trees and affecting the living environment of animals that use the area as a passage to the larger nature reserves of the Naardermeer and the Gooise forests and heaths cannot be justified.”
Playful protest
There will be protests this Saturday against the planned massive tree felling for the construction of the solar noise barrier. In addition to the Party for the Animals, several other opponents are also participating, such as the Nature and Landscape Foundation ‘t Gooi.
The activists do not yet want to reveal exactly what the action will look like. “But it will certainly be fun,” Kostic assures.
The big question is what Saturday’s protest can still do against the plans. All signals already seem to be green, because the Gooise Meren city council has already approved the plans. Yet that sounds too easy for the Party for the Animals. “For such a massive tree felling in protected nature, the province must also give the green light. We will fiercely oppose that.”