Forty residents of the Oosterboer district in Meppel are against the arrival of a pump track track in their district. For the Meppelers it is not about the asphalt circuit on which young people can cycle, scooter and rollerblade itself, but about the place. They are afraid of more nuisance than they already have from the skating rink in their neighborhood. They are also angry that they heard through the media about the plans for the pump track track in their backyard and that they were not informed by the municipality.
But this week, the forty local residents sent a letter to the municipality expressing their concerns about the plans. They feel passed over, says Robert Bakker, one of the objectors. “We have to hear everything through the media, while he ends up in our backyard. We do not agree with that.”
According to Bakker, the neighborhood is already experiencing nuisance from the skate park at the moment. “Not during the day, then there is good play. But in the evening it is a place full of loitering youth. There is drinking and drug dealing. We do not go near there at night. It is unsafe.”
“We have written many letters with the neighborhood about this, but nothing is being done about it,” Bakker continues. “And then we now find out that they want to bring even more youth here with a pump track track. In our opinion, you are not tackling the existing problem, but you are increasing it.”
Bakker lacks a long-term vision of the municipality. “With the arrival of the skate track, things also went well in the first few years. Then there was guidance and supervision. But the users at the time became older and then disappear in the long run. Their place has been taken by another group, who do not come to play sports and move, but needs other things.”
Bakker emphasizes that he is absolutely not opposed to a pump track track. “This is a great initiative. It was conceived by 10-year-old boys and picked up by the youth worker. Fantastic!”, says the local resident. According to him, the problem lies with the municipality. “We prefer to walk hand in hand with the youth and to realize something beautiful as a neighborhood. But we were not included in this at all, and we should have. The municipality made a mistake in this. Now this decision is being made, assuming that the local residents have been consulted. But that is not the case. So this decision is legally unlawful. That is why we want it to be reversed.”
After they have sent the letter, the municipality still wants to talk to the local residents, says Bakker. They want the municipality to cancel this plan and look for a new one for the pump track track. Five hundred meters away from the scouting location, he says, is a much better place. “There is plenty of room there, there is parking space and you then place it further away from homes,” says Bakker. According to Bakker, the scouting still has enough space left. “And if they need more space, they can always go to the field behind our house. I’d rather have the scouting behind this than a pump track.”
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