1/3 Marty and Tiny van den Brand (photo: Jos Verkuijlen)
There now seems to be a plan for the future of the Wildhorst recreation park in Heeswijk-Dinther. For decades, the municipality has been wrestling with what to do with the park. An architect is interested in turning it into a recreation park again. Where there must also be room for permanent living.
Marty (85) and Tiny (81) van den Brand have their chalet on the edge of the recreation park. They have lived there for 23 years overlooking the parking lot. “Our terrace is always open in the summer,” Marty laughs. “I love living in this place,” adds Tiny. “I like all the excitement around me.”
Camping de Wildhorst was a problem child of the municipality of Bernheze for a while. Bad management led to a lot of decay. “It was really in a trough for a while,” says Tiny. The police came by regularly. There has been a management cooperative for more than ten years. They maintain the park. “Since then it has been very quiet here. But it was a deep valley that had to be climbed out of,” says Tiny.
“There’s something lovely here.”
The park is permanently inhabited. A few hundred migrant workers live there and people still have their holiday homes there. But there are also many empty spaces. For years, the municipality of Bernheze has wanted to do something with the park. A public tender was issued and Zeelenberg Architecture came up with the best plan. It should become a recreation park again. They will investigate whether that is possible in the coming year.
Architect Jan-Paul Bron walks across the park. “There’s something lovely here,” he says. “The trees are big, the roads wind through the forest. There’s something cozy about it. A number of chalets have expired, it is no longer of this time. But you’re having a great time here. You have the birds and the peace here.”
“It didn’t work every time.”
Still, it will be quite a puzzle to do something. It’s not just a patchwork of leases that makes it difficult. But some people have also had their chalet at the park for decades. It is also a challenge what to do with the migrant workers and there must be room to live permanently. “I hope we can come up with a good plan with as little suffering as possible,” says Bron. “I also realize that we are going to hurt somewhere.”
Although it is uncertain what will happen to Tiny and Marty’s chalet, they are happy that there are plans. “We’ve been talking about that for years,” says Tiny. “And it didn’t work out every time. Glad something is happening now. And if we have to leave here, I assume that the municipality will talk to us first. I don’t think they’ll throw us out overnight.”
Zeelenberg Architecture will spend a year working on a feasibility plan for the park. When that is finished, it will be years before the new recreation park is built. “Well, I wonder if we will experience that again,” says Tiny.
