Fourteen municipalities in Hainaut are concerned by this project called “Boucle du Hainaut”. A project led by Elia, the electricity network manager, which consists of creating a new high-voltage line between Avelgem, in Flanders and Courcelles, near Charleroi.
A line intended to ensure the consumption of electricity produced by the North Sea wind turbines in the south of the country.
The mayors of the 14 municipalities concerned do not agree
The mayors like the residents are not opposed to the principle. But they do not accept what is submitted to them so far. Clearly, more than 80 kilometers of the territory of the province of Hainaut, according to the project, will be crossed by pylons with high voltage lines.
And everywhere, the same fears. This nurse living in Mont-de-l’Enclus, in Picardy Wallonia, the first town impacted, is particularly concerned regarding the health aspect. Its mayor, MR, Jean-Pierre Bourdeaud’Huy notes that a hundred homes in his town will be wedged between two high voltage lines. ” This is already having consequences in terms of housing. Owners want to leave because of this project but the sale price drops or the houses do not sell. And compensation won’t solve the problem.”
“We need a project with burying the lines”
It is the same request that is heard everywhere. For Fabienne Winckel, the PS mayor of Soignies, this is the acceptable solution. ” Pylons will, according to the project, cross ten kilometers of my city. They will pass through rural areas preserved from everything until now. In addition to the concerns in terms of health, the environment and the questions for farmers, presenting the project like this is unacceptable. Direct current burial will probably cost more. That’s what we’re told. But we are on a project for the next hundred years. We have to have a long-term view.”
“We are not listened to”
This is the other major criticism expressed and felt by the mayors and local residents. And for them, the Walloon government via Willy Borsus, MR Minister in charge of Regional Planning, took a step at the beginning of February by validating the orientations linked to the revision of the sector plan.
