Waalre municipality has plans to overhaul the outskirts of Aalst. However, a group of local residents do not agree with the plans and have started a petition.
The plans to overhaul the outlying area date back to November 2021. Those plans explained how the green area should be developed. Biodiversity should increase, more people should be drawn to the area for recreation, and the area should become more accessible.
Not everyone agrees
Not everyone agrees with these objectives. Residents’ collective Eerlijk Buiten’ therefore started a petition to put a stop to the Waalre plans. This is because, according to the initiators, the current plans are bad for nature.
More visitors
The petitioner also sees no point in increasing the number of visitors to the area. Better accessibility will increase the number of cars in the area, to the detriment of air quality and tranquillity in the area, they say.
Finally, there are plans to pave the extension of Sophiastraat or Hutdijk towards the A2 motorway. These plans are there partly to improve road safety in the area and do something about the dust nuisance that sometimes arises in the area. According to the residents’ collective, those plans “detract from the character of the area”.
Source: Studio040.nl
Translated by: Anitha Sevugan
