The Challenges and Concerns of the SDT in Habay: Ahmed Berthome (Ecolo) Sheds Light on the Issues

2023-07-27 16:13:00

Of all the habaysiens elected officials who spoke on Wednesday evening, it was perhaps Ahmed Berthome (Ecolo), who best exposed what is wrong with the SDT concerning the municipality of Habay. This Walloon scheme, which will guide territorial development in Wallonia for the next thirty years, relegates Habay as a simple rural municipality, in the sense that the entity is not taken as an anchoring point.

“The idea of ​​this document is to no longer build, but in Habay our situation is different, he summarizes. The reality on the ground means that we cannot remain exclusively rural. We are going to welcome a hospital regional (Editor’s note: in Houdemont) of which there is no question in this diagram, and we are obliged to assume the attraction towards the Grand Duchy. On this basis alone, we cannot accept to be on such a low development.”

Previously, the mayor Serge Bodeux presented all the remarks to improve this SDT with regard to the Habaysian situation. Comments from all the groups that met beforehand. “I wanted to thank you, that we can, on important issues, work together and constructively,” he slips.

Be recognized as an anchor point

It is impossible to list all the remarks here, as there are so many of them. Note that the municipality of Habay will have two poles: Habay-la-Neuve (urban) and Marbehan (villagers) which alone will have to concentrate 75% of new housing by 2050. The Municipality would like Habay-la-Vieille, Hachy, Houdemont and Rulles are recognized with their intermediate density (as in the municipal development scheme).

Big problem, Habay is not taken as an anchoring pole, but “there is a risk in the long term that regional investments will be prioritized within the poles, in particular for services to the population (mobility, culture, education, etc.)” , notes the mayor.

In view of the construction of the hospital in Houdemont, the project to extend the Coeuvins zoning, the importance of the Marbehan station or even all the subdivision projects underway in the territory, the Municipality of Habay considers that it should benefit from the status of an anchor point.

Another remark: the transport of goods by rail should be an absolute priority. Habay citing the Swiss example: transit freight is forced to go by rail.

Nathalie Monfort insisted that a remark concerning white areas for electrosensitive people be added.

Remarks that aroused the assent of all. For the opinion to be rendered, it was much more complex.

A convoluted formula, without the words “favorable” or “unfavorable”

An impressive number of comments have been made by elected Habaysians on the SDT. Now it remains to vote. And there, place to the artistic blur.

If some want to issue an unfavorable opinion, others prefer to issue a conditional favorable opinion. What tips the balance one way or the other? political color. As in many other municipalities, the elected liberals, because the SDT is supported by the Minister of Regional Planning Willy Borsus (MR) prefer the conditional favorable opinion, where the other political groups opt for a negative opinion. , with the same remarks.

If it is only in Habay, we seek unanimity on this file. We spare you the long minutes of debate to agree on a formula, where neither the words “favourable” or “unfavorable” appear, which finally went from: “The draft SDT presented must evolve profoundly and cannot be validated only on the basis of the conditions issued above” to “Depending on our municipal reality, the SDT project presented must evolve profoundly and is not validated as it is”, which aroused, with more or less conviction, the consent of all the elected representatives present, Jean-Marc Devillet who had withdrawn not to vote, finally returning to sit to adopt the formula.

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#Walloon #scheme #Houdemont #regional #hospital

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