There will be a line through the controversial football field at Egmond aan den Hoef for the time being. The municipality of Bergen has been considering the site on Egmonderstraatweg for years as a merger location for the football clubs Zeevogels, Sint Adelbertus and Egmondia. However, local residents, agricultural organization LTO and companies went to the Council of State. This morning, for the second time, he decided that the zoning plan will be annulled.
Five football fields with facilities for the three Egmond football associations would be built on the site, which is still used for bulb cultivation. The problem is that the land where the football complex is to be built has been designated by the province of North Holland as a bulb concentration area.
This means that bulb cultivation should be made possible or expanded in such areas. By building a football complex, the opposite is the case. This is only possible if the province grants an exemption for this, but in this case there is no such exemption.
Nitrogen problem
The compensation that the municipality of Bergen had in mind for bulb cultivation is also not sufficient. And insufficient research has been done into the blowing of crop protection products used in bulb cultivation. The question is whether this has an impact on the health of the footballers. According to the municipality, the consequences are acceptable, but the judge thinks otherwise.
And then there is the nitrogen problem. Due to the arrival of the football complex, there will be more nitrogen emissions. This is caused, for example, by cars that drive back and forth. The municipality has investigated this, but according to the Council of State it has not become clear how great the consequences are for the surrounding nature reserve.
backsail
It is not the first time that the municipality of Bergen has backed down in court. In 2019 destroyed the Council of State also approved the zoning plan, because insufficient account had been taken of the environment and the nitrogen problem. Now the municipality has to go back to the drawing board if they still want to go through with the plan.
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In the Egmonden there has been a lot for a long time division about the new football complex. Local residents fear noise and light nuisance and find the new football complex an impact on the landscape. According to the action group ‘No Balls but Bulbs’, other locations are much more suitable.
“We don’t like it because the open area is affected. We will lose the bulb ground, if it continues it will be full of goals, ball catchers, light poles and billboards. We are losing our view and that is not an attractive prospect,” he said. Cyril Wullems of the action group earlier against NH Nieuws.
More later…