Petition against dust nuisance company: “Want to speak to neighborhood”

Sidegro says it has all permits in order and is already making a lot of efforts to limit the nuisance. But they also want to start a conversation with the neighbourhood.

Also concerned about fine dust

Local resident Jan Vanmaele shows us some pieces of asbestos. More than two months after the fire at Sidegro, he still finds them almost every day. But besides asbestos, it is mainly the fine dust that bothers the neighborhood. Large clouds of dust often blow over the neighbourhood, they say.

“We have been asking for years that they do something to stop the dust,” says local resident Claire Sioen. “But in eight years nothing has really happened in that area.”

Sidegro: “Efforts have been made”

But the company Sidegro strongly contradicts that.

“They have installed sheds, including sheds with noise barriers, to limit noise nuisance as much as possible. An installation has also been installed that mists everything, so that we can keep that dust nuisance to a minimum,” says Bernhard De Muynck, lawyer for sidegro.

After the fire, a petition was started, asking the company to take more account of the neighborhood and do more against the dust nuisance. Many people signed the petition.

“For the moment, about three hundred families from the neighborhood but also from all over Roeselare. Because that asbestos cloud has not stopped in this parish. The heavy pieces have fallen here. But the less visible particles have fallen throughout Roeselare and even beyond.”

Sidegro is already prepared to sit down at the table with the neighborhood.

“In principle, we are prepared to sit down with those people if we can serenely, to listen to the concerns of those people.”

City helps mediate

And the city of Roeselare also wants to help mediate.

Kris Declercq, mayor of Roeselare: “We held a meeting with a representative of the neighborhood a few weeks ago. We are following up on this to provide even more clarity about health questions. But questions have also been asked to the company itself.

We facilitate and find it important that the company can also provide answers to the questions that people ask themselves.”