Free collected the detailed reaction of the mayor of Woluwe Saint-Pierre Benoît Cerexhe (the Engaged), who tackles Georges Gilkinet, federal Minister of Mobility (Ecolo), on his management of noise pollution from aircraft.
Flanders has decided not to consult the other Regions in the context of the renewal of the national airport permit. How do you judge this attitude?
We see it very badly. We are the most overflown municipality in the entire Brussels Region and probably in all of Belgium. Nearly 40% of take-offs pass over Woluwe-Saint-Pierre. Runway 01 is also overused for very low altitude landings. Today, the population of my commune is living through hell. It annoys us that we are not consulted, while other Flemish municipalities, less overflown, are. The Flemish Region has most of the economic benefits of this airport but the nuisances are found massively in the Brussels Region, even in Walloon Brabant. More than 80% of the complaints received by the mediation service come from Francophones. Our lawyers are on the case and we will obviously make our voices heard in the context of the public inquiry that will take place. We have things to put on the table.
In your opinion, should Brussels airport stop growing?
Zaventem must become a “city airport” and we must work to distribute low cost activities and freight to other airports in the country. We saw during the attacks of 2016 that this solidarity and this distribution of tasks were possible between Belgian airports. But this is not the ambition of the airport management, which wants to significantly increase the number of passengers, to reach 32 million annual passengers in 2030, and double freight activity. This is unacceptable. In our view, night flights should be banned, the number of movements limited to 220,000 per year, or roughly the current number of movements. And finally, we must ban the noisiest planes. These are three proposals that should obtain consensus, both in the north and in the south of the country. I questioned Federal Minister Gilkinet (Ecolo) many times on the subject, but it was “radio silence”. I have never seen a minister who has done so little on this file. At least the others had tried to shake things up. Here, there is absolutely nothing, nada. No small scoop has been proposed, whether in terms of the environment, respect for local residents or even in terms of safety.
Do you think this file might cause a community crisis?
In any case, we will fight until the end if this new license does not suit us. We will introduce all possible and imaginable remedies. I also ask the Brussels Minister Maron (Ecolo) to refer the matter to the consultation committee without delay, given that this dossier clearly has an impact on the Brussels Region. We must avoid arriving like Carabinieri from Offenbach when everything is decided. This has been an extremely complex file since the 2000s. A miracle solution will be difficult to find, but the climate crisis we are experiencing must call into question the unbridled development of this airport. There are thus immediate environmental measures that can satisfy everyone. Then, it will be necessary to be able to sit around a table to rediscuss flight plans and prevent the most densely populated areas from being overflown.
Find our special folder “Noise pollution, community issues, expansion… Why Brussels airport will remain a cursed file” on La Libre Eco and in the newspaper this Saturday.
