“It was bend or break,” says Arie Donck, one of the initiators of the war memorial in honour of the historic Bailey bridge in Son en Breugel, about the municipality’s proposal. The village council wants to place the memorial at the pond on the Europalaan. “It was this or no permit.”
The initiators would have preferred the monument to be placed at the canal bridge (where the Bailey bridge was built in 1944, ed.), but according to Donck they had no choice. “It was either the pond or the permit would be withdrawn. So the new location was simply imposed on us. The reasons why it cannot be in the place we wanted are nonsense.”
‘Liar’
Donck calls the responsible alderman Jan Boersma a ‘liar’. “You can write this down without any problem. He gives all sorts of fallacies as to why we cannot place our memorial at the canal bridge. Take the cables and pipes for example, they are indeed there. But I have reported this to the Cables and Pipes Information Centre myself and they see no obstacle to placing our monument.”
Other foundation
According to the initiator, there is enough space. “We also offered to have a different foundation made, so that the monument can stand on the ground. Instead of a foundation that has to be in the ground. We also spoke with Rijkswaterstaat, as the owner of the pipes, about a place in the green. This was certainly negotiable, but the municipality simply ignored it.”
In a letter to the VVD, Voor U! and D66 factions, which recently submitted questions to the municipal council, the municipality emphasises that ‘the public space at the intended location is needed in the short term for the construction and development of the F50 cycle route and the associated redevelopment of the public space’.
Furthermore, the municipality foresees problems with traffic safety. ‘It is already a busy area and placing this monument will cause even more distraction and many visitors’, as can be read in the letter. This is reason enough for the municipality not to allow the placement of the monument at the ‘ideal location’ and to choose the pond on the Europalaan.
Alternative location
According to Donck, the initiators also suggested an alternative location: “On the Nieuwstraat, just over the bridge at the canal. Where the tree was also planted for a centenarian resident of Son en Breugel. We were prepared to talk to the family to see if they would have any objections, but this was not necessary, because this location was also rejected by the municipality.”
So the initiators reluctantly agreed to ‘the pond’. “I have consulted with a number of people who say ‘go ahead, because otherwise you will soon have no location at all’. Even though the monument will now be at a location that has nothing to do with the construction of the Bailey Bridge.”
There is another problem: the costs of re-paving the terrain and placing the monument. The municipality is placing these with the ‘applicants’. Donck: “We have no money at all, so I don’t know who is going to pay this amount. So who is going to pay those seven thousand euros is not yet clear. When mayor Galjaard was still here, we didn’t have all this nonsense!”
Response from the municipality
The municipality does not respond to Donck’s allegations. However, a spokeswoman does say: “Council questions have been asked about the memorial monument before. This information is public and can be viewed by everyone. The memorial monument and its placement have also been discussed several times and in different ways.”
According to the municipal spokesperson, there has been frequent contact with those involved and various locations have been suggested and investigated. “Ultimately, the current location, accepted by the initiators, was chosen. The monument will soon be placed here. The permit for this has now been granted.”
Bailey bridge
The famous bailey bridge was a temporary bridge over the wilhelmina canal. The structure was built in a short time by the allied troops. Military vehicles could also drive over it.
This was necessary because the Germans had blown up the regular bridge at Son. This thwarted the advance of the Allies. With the rapid construction of the Bailey Bridge, the Americans were able to cross the canal after all.
Source: Studio040
For Eindhoven News: Lila Mehrez
