Initiators and opponents of the Waterproef play park in the Moerenburg nature reserve in Tilburg are still at odds with each other, but they have to get around the table again. An independent chairman should get the two talking again. This emerged from a well-attended council meeting in Tilburg on Monday evening.
Waterproef has to convert an old water treatment plant in Tilburg into a recreation park. The Armhoefse Akkers district, a popular, prosperous neighborhood in Tilburg, is divided over the plans. Part of the neighborhood is afraid that the peace in the nearby nature reserve has disappeared forever.
Since 2018, the future of water treatment on the Wilhelmina Canal has been discussed. In 2019, after a design competition, the Waterproef initiative was chosen by the Water Board, owner of the water treatment plant. It must become an outdoor play park with sports and catering. People from the neighborhood were allowed to participate in a sounding board group about the plan.
Afraid of nuisance
The debate in the Tilburg council on Monday evening showed that the initiators of Waterproef and local residents had long been in agreement. But between 2019 and now, the two lost each other. Now they are directly opposite each other.
In the meantime, quite a bit of time has been spent on the recreation area in Tilburg’s town hall. The municipality must provide the permits for the park. That will also happen because the zoning plan allows everything that will be done in the water park.
The local residents are especially afraid of nuisance. Hundreds of thousands of visitors come every year. There will be 160 terrace places, at least ten festivals and events per year, and eighty parking spaces. Then it’s done with the rest, they reason. And who says that if rules are broken, the municipality will enforce them?
Banners and action boards
The responsible alderman Rik Grashoff could answer that. “Yes, we will enforce firmly. There will be guarantees stating that there will be no nuisance. We put that in the permits.”
Local residents, who flocked to the council meeting en masse with banners and action boards, also received support from the List of Smolders (LST). Not exactly the party that receives the most votes in the prosperous district. LST councilor Peter van den Hoven: “It is not our target group, Armhoef, but if things have gone wrong in the process, we have to fix it”.
It is certain that there will be talk by entrepreneurs and local residents, but will it also yield anything? The water park can get there anyway. Even without the consent of the neighborhood.