This became apparent tonight during a scheduled council meeting. It is exceptional that a municipality starts legal proceedings against the central government. But the city council was unanimous and the council supported the decision.
Moral duty
In a closed meeting, the council discussed an advice from the municipality’s in-house lawyer who called it ‘plausible’ that the granted permit has ‘legal defects’. The municipality could therefore continue with ‘a properly substantiated appeal procedure’.
At first they talked behind closed doors. The various factions then quickly reached an agreement during the public council session. “We have a moral obligation to farmers and industry to take this step,” noted group leader Guus Elkhuizen of Samenbeter Nieuwkoop.
Nieuwkoop is a municipality in South Holland and is located in the Green Heart of the Netherlands. The Natura 2000 areas Nieuwkoopse plassen and De Haeck are located nearby, which consist of peat ponds, transitional peat and swamp heath. These are vulnerable nature reserves that suffer from the nitrogen precipitation that is partly caused by air traffic from Schiphol.
Next year
Nieuwkoop is not the only party that is going to court to challenge the nature permit. It became clear earlier that Mobilization for the Environment (MOB) also does this. MOB is working with other nature organizations and an association of residents of Nieuwkoop who are concerned about the environmental effects caused by Schiphol.
The court in The Hague will probably hear the appeals in the middle of next year.
2023-12-07 21:47:36
#Municipality #Nieuwkoop #appeals #Schiphol #nature #permit
