Their frustration: why does Schiphol seem to be heard, but not the Zwanenburgers?
“Now we get many more planes over the village because they cannot use the polder lane. That is very annoying,” says the Zwanenburg Suzanne. She is herself a truck driver and, just like the pilots, also experiences nuisance from the sparkle. “You are just blinded.”
Glare
In the fields of four farmers, a gigantic solar park has been created in recent months that is managed by Energy Solutions Group, an energy producer from Belgium. Because solar panels are placed with reflective glass instead of absorbent glass, pilots now suffer from sparkle. Dozens of reports have been received in recent weeks.
How exactly this could happen is still not clear. To guarantee flight safety, it was decided To close the Polderbaan in the morning. Due to the position of the sun, the nuisance was caused by planes that landed. In recent days, the Zwanenburgbaan was deployed, causing the planes to cross the village every morning.
Extra aircraft
“It’s just stupid!” Responds a woman who walks her dog. She finds the whole situation bizarre. It concerns about 55 to 65 landings a day that would normally land on the Polderbaan. Where some Zwanenburgers get white hot when it comes to the solar park and the extra nuisance due to the aircraft, others shrug their shoulders.
“Ah child, that’s how it goes with a lot of things that are conceived from behind a desk,” a woman sighs. She is a born swan burger and has never felt the need to move because of the fly noise. She takes that there is a bit more nuisance at the village. “I just understand that, those are the occasional things that happen.”
“It’s fine,” says the Australian Jennifer who lives in Zwanenburg. “I think it is a good initiative that the solar panels are there. A pity about planes, but that’s okay.”
Lawsuits
On behalf of the Zwanenburgers, the core group ‘No Solar Panel Park Zwanenburg’ Surious action led to the arrival of the solar parkto lawsuits against the province.
Suzanne also participated. “Anyway, we are a village of how many thousand inhabitants. You always take that off, is my opinion,” says Suzanne.
Zwanenburger Roy Masius shares that opinion. “Of course, Zwanenburg has fought, but your interests are simply pushed aside. The municipality of Haarlemmermeer is only for Schiphol, she is not there for citizens,” he says. “We come up with one lawyer and they open a lot of lawyers. You always lose that.”
Structural solution
At the end of March there must be a view of a structural solution. What solution is being thought of is not yet clear. For some Zwanenburgers it feels like they are losing out. For example, why is no canvas placed over the panels or is the park not dismantled? A spokesperson for the municipality of Haarlemmermeer did not yet have a clear answer to those questions.
“You see it: it is being pushed through and now the pilots are bothered by it. And then suddenly a solution can be looked at. Schiphol is of course a large source of income for the whole of the Netherlands. Then everything is possible,” says Suzanne.