Alveringem, Jabbeke and Wielsbeke receive 4.7 million euros back from the Belgian state

The legal battle that lasted almost ten years between the Belgian state and the municipalities of Alveringem, Jabbeke and Wielsbeke has come to an end. The municipalities then do not have to pay high supplements, which were suddenly collected retroactively from the fire service contributions. Last year, the Belgian state still appealed in cassation two months after the ruling in March. Mayor of Alveringem, Gerard Liefooghe, is relieved now that the state has also lost that move.

High Supplements

At the start of 2014, Mayor Liefooghe received an unexpected and particularly high bill in the mailbox for fire assistance from local brigades. From 2006 to 2010, supplements were retroactively collected at more than double the annual fee previously paid. A similar bill followed in 2017 for the years 2011 and 2012. The mayor objected to this: “those settlements were completely opaque and the collection of the supplements was late due to the statute of limitations”.

paid anyway

The payment of this statement could not be stopped because the provincial governor could have the money transferred from the municipal account on his own authority. Alveringem, together with Wielsbeke and Jabbeke, engaged lawyer Arnoud Declerck, who ensured that the decisions of the governor and Minister of the Interior were annulled by the Council of State. The Court of Appeal in Ghent subsequently ruled that the Belgian state had to repay all illegally collected supplements, plus interest. Now that the Belgian state is definitively blunt, the decision of the Court of Appeal is fully upheld.

The amount of 812,000 euros and the interests of 46,000 euros will therefore go back into the municipal coffers of Alveringem and will be used for road maintenance, among other things. Jabbeke will receive 2.5 million euros back and Wielsbeke will receive more than 1.4 million euros.