2023-09-11 04:00:00
An entire building, permanently lit. This is the view that Diego faces every day from his home in Laeken. A light nuisance which prevents him from sleeping and which gradually becomes a source of mental stress. He doesn’t understand how these lights can stay on constantly, sometimes even in broad daylight. A situation that he wanted to denounce by contacting us via the orange Alert us button.
Every day, Thibault’s first instinct is to open his curtains. Unfortunately, instead of witnessing a beautiful sunrise, a completely different spectacle presents itself to his eyes: “As soon as I wake up, I already see lights in the distance. Sometimes even in broad daylight! It’s indecent. It’s starting to make me feel more and more. As much for me as for the impact it has on the fauna and flora of the park opposite. It’s dramatic…“For the Laekenois, the situation is incomprehensible. It is therefore impossible to remain impassive in the face of such a scene:”We are constantly told that we need to save energy. Some municipalities completely cut off electricity from a certain time. And there, we have a giant light block in the middle of Brussels. It says it’s eco-friendly, but in reality, nothing changes.”
Two months ago, Diego decided to take matters into his own hands. He then tries to alert the municipality to the problem: “I contacted the mayor’s office of Philippe Close. They told me that they were going to forward the file to the Laekenois homes which are responsible for the building.“The days pass, but the problem is still not resolved:”I tried restarting, and every time I see these same lights again. I have the impression that it doesn’t shock them that much. You can only see that from miles away.“In addition to unnecessary electricity costs, Diego can no longer stand the light the building constantly gives off:”It seems like we constantly have headlights trained on us. We had to install completely opaque black curtains to be able to sleep. And that’s not enough, since there’s always light sneaking through.”
Security reasons
To try to understand the electrical operating system of this building, we contacted Foyers Laekenois: “These lights actually come from the passageways of one of the facades of the building. These are a kind of corridors, outdoors, lit by LEDs. The lights come on at a certain time, and then turn off. Everything is programmed by a central system. We cannot modify it unless we redo everything at the installation level… “
Concerning the electricity consumption that the system represents, for the director of Foyers Laekenois, everything is under control: “We use LEDs, this remains a slightly less energy-consuming option.“Each floor therefore has a corridor, which allows you to return to the apartments via the elevator: “You understand that we cannot force the people who live in these 96 apartments to take dark corridors to return to their doors. Of course, the lights are on all the time, but their living rooms do not face this facade. Only the kitchens are directly exposed to it.“But when a 17-story building lights up in the middle of the night in the middle of Laeken, it obviously doesn’t go unnoticed. For the director, it’s above all a question of security: “In the past, we had many requests to increase the lighting in this area, which is prone to vandalism. I have never received any complaints, neither from residents of the building nor from neighbors, to remove these lights. It’s quite the opposite.“
Vandalism and drug trafficking
The building is part of several subdivisions which form “the Model City“. A social housing estate, which has a total of 1,029 housing units. Its particular layout makes it a very open place since the buildings are relatively scattered. Young delinquents can therefore find a place of refuge there. The project was designed in the 90s and has regularly been the target of numerous acts of vandalism: “Degraded elevators were regularly observed. There were also cases of arson in cellars and around buildings. Since the installation of these lights, this type of incident has become a little rarer. And local residents feel safer.”
Acts of vandalism which can lead to very serious consequences. In 2018, elevators in block 2 of the city became unusable. A complicated situation for residents of the upper floors. The building consisted of 16 floors in total. Some, seriously ill and disabled, were stuck at home for more than a week. In 2020, the city once again made the news for cases of projectiles being thrown at police officers.
energy waste laeken
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