The judge in Assen has declared a group of opponents of a wind farm in Drenthe inadmissible in the preliminary relief proceedings that they had instituted. She did not comply with the formal requirements to continue their case.
The Platform Storm action group asked the judge in preliminary relief proceedings to stop the construction of the Drentse Monden wind farm. They have a laundry list of objections against the windmills, such as disturbance of peace, noise and damage to nature.
In February 2018, the Council of State, the highest administrative judge in the Netherlands, ruled that construction was allowed to continue. This seemed to have reached the end of ten years of litigation by the opponents.
But they drew hope last summer from a ruling by the European court on a number of windmills in Belgium. The European Court of Justice said strict environmental and health standards apply to wind farms. Those strict rules are not applied in the Netherlands, according to Platform Storm eiste that the Dutch permits also disappear in the trash and that construction must be stopped.
The judge in Assen has not ruled on this, because he declares the plaintiffs inadmissible. Platform Storm is considering further steps. “We believe that this situation cannot and should not continue and will therefore not resign in this situation.”
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