No Beachland: Little understanding from mayor
Yesterday we informed Focus-WTV that the festival, a week and a half before the start, cannot take place. The necessary permits have not been obtained because new dunes have arisen on the site of the festival. But there is also no advice about the alternative, and they do not understand that in Blankenberge.
“Regulitis”, says mayor
At the beginning of July there should be beats again at the Beachland festival, but that is now running into a problem. Beachland has failed to obtain the necessary permits from the Coastal Service and the Nature and Forest Administration.
According to the mayor, it is certainly not the city of Blankenberge.
“That’s right, we are confronted with what I call ‘regulitis’,” says mayor Björn Prasse. “Something that has been happening here for more than 10 years is suddenly not possible due to the development of new dunes. The organizer had anticipated this. He had come up with an alternative plan, had also submitted a preliminary study for it to the competent authority, but they can’t or won’t give advice for that.”
“Little tidy”
And no advice is no permit and therefore no festival. Blankenberge himself has tried to save it. Beachland took place on the beach border with Wenduine. Remarkable: the municipality of De Haan was not very pleased with the organization in July 2019, according to our archive.
“We believe that the organizers have not cleaned up enough”, said Mayor Wilfried Vandaele De Haan-Wenduine in 2019. “Especially between the two festival days, our services have had a lot of work to clear up bags of litter, cups and plastic and that is not the case. intention.”
Nature conservation?
New young dunes are growing on the festival site and they are better protected. The administration chose not to formulate advice on these embryonic dunes. And also not about the alternative location closer to Zeebrugge. The cancellation can therefore be a nature conservation measure.
“I doubt it. I want to understand what lies behind me, those dunes, but the test was done at the new location. Everything was outside the Ven and habitat directive area.”
And yet there was no permit. The organizer of Beachland is very disappointed. He can’t respond in front of the camera. On 9 days before the start he tries to limit the financial damage. More than 10,000 people were expected at Beachland.