After 20 years, the bullet is through the church. The zoning plan to build a business park on Heesch West was adopted by the city council of Den Bosch on Tuesday evening. Disappointed local residents stood at the door to express their grief over this decision.
A group of local residents said goodbye with coffee and cake before the decisive council meeting. The sound of a mourning drum came from a loudspeaker. “We are grieving, because our lives are being taken from us,” said Berty Mulder, who had baked the cakes. “There will be a lot more noise and a lot more traffic, it’s only about economic interest. Politicians must know that our safety and quality of life will be taken away.”
All these years nothing has been done with alternative plans that the residents have put forward. according to Christien van Bergen. “It’s a Black Day”
A proposal by the Bossche Groenen not to create a business park at this decisive moment but to build an eco-village on the site did not receive a majority. According to the Bossche Groenen, there is a much greater need for houses and companies can move to Waalwijk, for example. Hanneke Welten van Doremalen of the VVD is happy that the business park is coming. “Seven adjustments have been made to the plan,” says Van Doremalen. Earlier, three large windmills that were planned at the business park were canceled after protests from local residents.
“There is currently no place in Den Bosch and the surrounding area to establish large companies, so we need Heesch West,” said alderman Jan Hoskam. “Of course I also have compassion for the local residents and there has been a lot of consultation, but change hurts.”
Moreover, after twenty years of planning, you cannot abandon the business park at the last minute, then you are an unreliable government according to Paul van der Krabbe of Bosch Belang. Liveable ‘s-Hertogenbosch agrees. “We desperately need those companies that are coming,” said party chairman Paul Kagie.
This must become the most sustainable industrial estate in the Netherlands, according to Steven van Slageren (GroenLinks). The local residents have no confidence in this and have announced that they will go to the Council of State to challenge the plans.