The Council of State has annulled the RUP of the municipality of Bocholt for sand extraction in the Kaulille borough. The Council thereby follows organisation BOS+, which had lodged an appeal against that plan. “We are enormously pleased with this ruling,” says Laure De Vroey of BOS+. “It is an important victory and not only for the forests in Kaulille. Moreover, the judgment contains very clear and well-reasoned arguments. They point out some flaws in the procedure.”
For example, the RvS follows BOS+ on a few points, according to De Vroey. “First, there would have been too little search for alternative locations for sand extraction. The question of whether that should happen in that valuable forest area was not asked enough. Second, the study on the impact on nature and on some endangered species is flawed. In particular, the black woodpecker has not been taken into account. That bird species saved the forest area. Third, it is hugely important to us that the judgment points out the impact of impending deforestation on the climate. In doing so, it also refers to a negative opinion by the Agency for Nature and Forests, which the municipality did not sufficiently comply with.”
According to BOS+, this is a historic decision. “In the short term, some 80 hectares of forest were threatened. In the long term, that would rise to 100 hectares. That is huge. Every day a football field of forest disappears in Flanders with a permit. In a year’s time, you’d end up with 200 to 300 hectares. If this plan is implemented, a third of that total will be added in one fell swoop,” De Vroey calculates.
Bocholt mayor Stijn Van Baelen nuances that calculation. “The clearing would span a period of 30 to 40 years. Any further clearing of trees would be immediately compensated by planting new trees or providing additional soft recreation. Trees would also be planted in other locations. That is why 22 out of 23 councillors at the time gave their approval to the plan.”
So we are disappointed,” the mayor continued.”This RUP offered us opportunities.That site is industrial land, where heavy industry is allowed.We didn’t want that ourselves, so reclamation seemed to us the best route to eventually turn it into an area of nature and soft recreation.The file has caused a lot of turmoil, but we have tried to dispel it each time through consultations and information meetings.”
According to Van Baelen, his municipality is not at fault.”Flanders ruled, after the approval of the environmental impact report (MER) in 2018, that we could draw up an SIP, even though this is normally done at the Flemish level. The RvS now says that EIR was not sufficiently elaborated.But we are in the middle of that for nothing.If the approval of that report is there, you also expect everything to be in order.”
According to the Council of State’s ruling, the whole dossier now goes back to the Flemish level. “They have to reconsider whether they can delegate authority to us. First and foremost, that EIR will have to be deepened. Moreover, there is a whole new procedure to amend the regional plan. For us it stops here for now, but we will continue to follow it up,” Van Baelen explains.
They will also continue to follow the dossier at BOS+, according to De Vroey. “It is now clear that the Flemish government must decide on sand mining.We ourselves will take the arguments about the poor search for other sites and the inadequate research into the environmental and climate impact to other dossiers.This victory is in stark contrast to daily reports of Flemings worried about forest land in their neighbourhood.This is an important symbolic file, but other forests also deserve better protection.”
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> Any further clearing of trees would be immediately compensated by planting new trees or providing additional soft recreation.
Simple explanation that has been known for a long time that by this point I assume they’re either malicious or just too stupid to keep hanging on to that “solution”.
It has already been shown by Pano that compensation of forests is only done on paper, so I don’t trust the mayor when he says they’d have planted new trees.
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The Council of State has annulled the RUP of the municipality of Bocholt for sand extraction in the Kaulille borough. The Council thereby follows organisation BOS+, which had lodged an appeal against that plan. “We are enormously pleased with this ruling,” says Laure De Vroey of BOS+. “It is an important victory and not only for the forests in Kaulille. Moreover, the judgment contains very clear and well-reasoned arguments. They point out some flaws in the procedure.”
For example, the RvS follows BOS+ on a few points, according to De Vroey. “First, there would have been too little search for alternative locations for sand extraction. The question of whether that should happen in that valuable forest area was not asked enough. Second, the study on the impact on nature and on some endangered species is flawed. In particular, the black woodpecker has not been taken into account. That bird species saved the forest area. Third, it is hugely important to us that the judgment points out the impact of impending deforestation on the climate. In doing so, it also refers to a negative opinion by the Agency for Nature and Forests, which the municipality did not sufficiently comply with.”
According to BOS+, this is a historic decision. “In the short term, some 80 hectares of forest were threatened. In the long term, that would rise to 100 hectares. That is huge. Every day a football field of forest disappears in Flanders with a permit. In a year’s time, you’d end up with 200 to 300 hectares. If this plan is implemented, a third of that total will be added in one fell swoop,” De Vroey calculates.
Bocholt mayor Stijn Van Baelen nuances that calculation. “The clearing would span a period of 30 to 40 years. Any further clearing of trees would be immediately compensated by planting new trees or providing additional soft recreation. Trees would also be planted in other locations. That is why 22 out of 23 councillors at the time gave their approval to the plan.”
So we are disappointed,” the mayor continued.”This RUP offered us opportunities.That site is industrial land, where heavy industry is allowed.We didn’t want that ourselves, so reclamation seemed to us the best route to eventually turn it into an area of nature and soft recreation.The file has caused a lot of turmoil, but we have tried to dispel it each time through consultations and information meetings.”
According to Van Baelen, his municipality is not at fault.”Flanders ruled, after the approval of the environmental impact report (MER) in 2018, that we could draw up an SIP, even though this is normally done at the Flemish level. The RvS now says that EIR was not sufficiently elaborated.But we are in the middle of that for nothing.If the approval of that report is there, you also expect everything to be in order.”
According to the Council of State’s ruling, the whole dossier now goes back to the Flemish level. “They have to reconsider whether they can delegate authority to us. First and foremost, that EIR will have to be deepened. Moreover, there is a whole new procedure to amend the regional plan. For us it stops here for now, but we will continue to follow it up,” Van Baelen explains.
They will also continue to follow the dossier at BOS+, according to De Vroey. “It is now clear that the Flemish government must decide on sand mining.We ourselves will take the arguments about the poor search for other sites and the inadequate research into the environmental and climate impact to other dossiers.This victory is in stark contrast to daily reports of Flemings worried about forest land in their neighbourhood.This is an important symbolic file, but other forests also deserve better protection.”
——
> Any further clearing of trees would be immediately compensated by planting new trees or providing additional soft recreation.
https://e360.yale.edu/features/why-keeping-mature-forests-intact-is-key-to-the-climate-fight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp3iL72wy4A
Simple explanation that has been known for a long time that by this point I assume they’re either malicious or just too stupid to keep hanging on to that “solution”.
It has already been shown by Pano that compensation of forests is only done on paper, so I don’t trust the mayor when he says they’d have planted new trees.