The Gulbergen waste mountain is getting a metamorphosis. It has been discussed for twenty years, but now concrete plans are on the table for the first time. For a toboggan run, climbing hill or park, for example. At 60 meters, the Gulbergen is the highest point in Brabant. The area is also called the roof of Brabant, with a spectacular view of the Eindhoven skyline.
Tons of household waste, asbestos and steel, it is all buried under 80 centimeters of earth and a covering layer. The area is partly in Nuenen and partly in Geldrop-Mierlo. It is impossible to build a house on the highest waste mountain in Brabant. Neither does planting a forest. “Sometimes people have said that there is still money to be made from all the iron that is here,” says Frank van der Meijden, the political initiator of the Gulbergen project. “But that’s a fairy tale, it’s no longer profitable to take the waste mountain apart.”
Using the mountain recreationally with a beautiful entrance, park, catering, a climbing hill or toboggan run seems to be the most important option. Wouldn’t it be fun to roll down the mountain in a huge plastic ball? And a wooded holiday park nearby? Or small-scale ‘farm living’ with ‘nature-inclusive agriculture’? All this combined with nature, a maximum of eight windmills or a maximum of 80 hectares of solar panels. All of these options are on the table in the new plans.
Because money has to be earned with the mountain. “If we do nothing, it will only cost money, a few tons a year,” says Frank van der Meijden, mayor of Laarbeek. “And then we can’t keep the mountain beautiful.”
His municipality, together with 20 other municipalities in the region, bought the mountain for more than 17 million euros from the previous owner, waste company Attero. The mountain now has 21 owners, who have invited 1500 local residents, among others, to come and discuss the future of the mountain. Quite a challenge for the project team to have all noses pointing in the same direction in the near future.
The 17 million euros must be recouped. And the municipal maintenance costs must also be covered. The entire Gulbergen estate is 325 hectares in size, the mountain itself takes up 80 hectares. “The entire project must be budget neutral,” says Van der Meijden.
Municipalities continue to be responsible for the well-being of the waste mountain. “We call that perpetual aftercare,” says Van der Meijden. “The province is monitoring with us and a pot of money has also been set aside for that.” The new entrepreneurs around the mountain therefore do not have to worry about any problems with the waste mountain itself. “That is really good in the contract.”
The eyes have been focused on the VAM mountain in Drenthe as an example. “A road has been built there to hold cycling competitions,” says Van der Meijden. “But everything here is much larger. There will be no equivalent. This mountain is great to develop,” the mayor says with joy.
In October this year there should be a final plan for the mountain and the estate around it. The tendering procedure will then start to put Gulbergen on the market.