If it is up to the residents of Zwinderen, the plan of the province to cut down a plot of trees on the north side of the A37 will be canceled.
A solar route with solar panels along the road is being built along the highway. “And we have no objection to that at all,” says André Schonewille of Local Interest Zwinderen. “But we are having trouble with the planned felling of trees on two lots along the highway.”
The village has several objections to this. Firstly, residents think that their enjoyment of living will deteriorate due to the felling of trees and that the living environment will become less attractive. In addition, they fear more noise from the highway and a fauna tunnel ends exactly in one of the bushes.
“Zwinderen is well located in the green”, Schonewille believes. But the village is also sandwiched by the A37 on one side and the Hoogeveensche Vaart on the other side of the village. These are precisely the places where there is less green and it is precisely here that felling will soon take place. We find that very strange at this time. That there will be solar panels, great. But the trees have to stay.”
Despite the fact that it is a fairly narrow row of trees, according to the villagers, the trees do dampen the noise from the highway. “The province says that the trees don’t do this, but we know better. Especially in the summer the sound is really muffled. Solar panels will not do this. The province now wants to measure the traffic intensity first and make a calculation based on that. want a baseline measurement of the actual sound.”
The residents of Zwinderen also find it strange that the forest is being cut down, while a fauna passage opens into it. Through the tunnel under the A37, game can come from one side of the highway to the other. Schonewille: “If you remove the forest here, it will become a buffet for birds of prey. You don’t want that either.”
As an alternative, Local Interest proposes to interrupt the solar route on the north side of the highway. “Don’t put solar panels there, so that the trees can remain standing. Then we don’t look at the solar panels and we won’t be bothered by extra traffic noise.”
Yesterday, the association was in contact with the municipality of Coevorden, which has to test the environmental plan of the province. And Schonewille has taken courage from this: “The municipality is willing to take a serious look at the felling of trees. Yesterday we came closer together.”