Willem Derks from Veghel is extremely disappointed. Almost in his backyard, in the middle of a residential area, there has been a fast charging station for electric cars and vans for some time. The charging station was allowed to be built without the need for a permit. And that surprises Willem enormously.
“They were suddenly there in February.” Willem walks out of his garden through his back gate. Behind his garden is a place with garage boxes. On an open piece of land next to a garage there are two charging stations and an electricity box. It’s less than ten feet from his backyard.
Willem is especially afraid of the nuisance. “When I sit in the backyard I hear the charging stations,” he says. But there are also other nuisances. “Last week someone was loading here and had his music playing loudly. Yeah, you get that kind of thing. People also dump their waste here.”
“Why wasn’t it put in a better place?”
But what Willem thinks is strange is that it is allowed. The piece of land belonged to a private individual. He sold it to the charging station company Leap24. “I don’t understand how you can just do this without a permit.”
“I couldn’t object. There has been no consultation at all. Then we could have thought about a better place,” says Willem. “This is really in the middle of the residential area. Further on is a gas station. Why wasn’t it put there.”
“We are actually looking for places in built-up areas.”
The municipality of Meijerijstad has announced that a permit is indeed not required for the fast charging station. “You can install a charging station on your own land without a permit. You can then also let others load there without a permit and earn money from it,” said a spokesperson for the municipality. This is also said by Frans Siemerink of Leap24. “We do this completely according to the rules,” he says.
Siemerink explains why the charging station is located there. “We are looking for places throughout the Netherlands. We are looking for places within built-up areas.” The company does this because more and more electric cars are on the road. Especially from companies.
“It’s quite a puzzle to find good places.”
“There are many courier services in residential areas, as well as taxis and plumbers. In the future they will all drive electrically,” Siemerink explains. “They also need a place to recharge in between. The regular charging stations in neighborhoods cannot charge fast enough. That is why we are installing fast charging stations.”
We think it’s a shame that there is so much resistance in the neighborhood,” says Siemerink. We want to cause as little inconvenience as possible. But, we are within our rights to install the charging station. However, someone comes by regularly to check that there is no mess.”
The fast charging station in Veghel is so far the only one of the company in Brabant. “It is quite a puzzle to find good places,” says Siemerink. “We must be able to get land and there must be space on the electricity grid. The electricity grid is very full, especially in Brabant.”