“You want people to always be able to call 112. But the range in Eierland is not optimal.” These are the words of director of Texel airport Mike de Bruijn. His company wants to participate in the installation of a thirty meter high transmission tower for mobile telephone traffic. But not everyone thinks that’s a good idea. Including the neighboring Paracentrum Texel: “Novice paratroopers land everywhere.”
An extra transmission tower in the Texel polder is necessary for optimal coverage. Texel currently has capacity problems in the 4G network. That means that you don’t have good coverage everywhere on the island. Especially in Eierland this sometimes leaves something to be desired.
The municipality and Vodafone have asked De Bruijn whether he has space at his airport for a transmission tower. “We do not prefer to sell land. But we are also talking about a social problem here.” The mast does give the owner of the airport an annual rental income because the land is rented out under a lease.
Someone who is not happy with the intention to place a mast is Jan Boyen Rienks from the neighboring paracentrum. He especially warns about the risks that exist. “The paratroopers are landing everywhere. This is just not desirable. We have training for novice paratroopers. If someone flies into it, it’s done.”
No voluntary choice
The placement of a mast is not a voluntary choice. The government obliges providers to bring coverage to 98 percent. It is expected that this will require 10 percent additional transmission towers. De Bruijn: “I believe that 165 locations have been investigated, but without results, because the land owners did not want to cooperate. This was a location where the willingness to cooperate was there.”
An additional distribution station from Liander will also be built on the airport site to provide the north end of the island with sufficient energy. De Bruijn: “You also want to meet social needs with this subject.”
In principle, the municipality does not want any horizon pollution and therefore wants the mast to fit in well with the environment. Because there are already high buildings and masts at the airport, it would fit well into the environment.
De Bruijn indicates that he wants to meet the objections and opt for a 30 meter high mast instead of 40 meters. “We do want to have red and white lights in the mast, so that it is clearly visible.”
Good appointments
According to De Bruijn, good agreements can be made for the paratroopers. “If a good procedure is developed for this, that’s no problem. We don’t want them to end up between the propellers.” Those agreements must then be about the place where the paratroopers are dropped and the wind conditions.
The place where the novice paratroopers have to land is also far from the location of the mast, according to him. “In the past, the novice paratroopers hung on round spheres that were difficult to control. But nowadays they hang on well-controllable mattresses.”
Rienks indicates that it usually goes well, but not always. The experienced jumpers land near the paracenter, but the novices sometimes get off course and end up in surrounding farmlands. “We make good agreements with the farmers. And sometimes the paratroopers also land on the other side of the Postweg.” According to him, there are alternative locations for the mast. “We’re looking at that now,” he says.