Brussels, (Brussels Morning)- What seemed decided last week is now also officially announced: the circulation plan in Cureghem ends up in the wastepaper basket. The municipality now wants to start a new participation process in order ‘to draw up a new mobility plan as quickly as possible,’ says Mayor Cumps. There is no concrete timing yet.
Last week, the mayor of Anderlecht Fabrice Cumps (PS) announced that the municipality will remove the concrete blocks that had been planted in Cureghem for the circulation plan. The mayor also asked the council to cancel the circulation plan, and then start over with a clean slate. The board formally reached an agreement this Tuesday morning. “To move forward, it was important to restore calm around the mobility issue,” says Cumps. “This is the reason for today’s decision and our desire to resume consultations with local residents to prepare a new mobility plan as soon as possible. that everyone sees the need for.”
The Anderlecht majority realises that there was insufficient support for the circulation plan that was introduced at the beginning of the summer holidays. A petition, loud protest and the sabotage of temporary road infrastructure were supposed to make that lack of support clear. For the new circulation plan, the municipality wants to involve the residents of Cureghem as much as possible, “micro district by micro district.”
“The first talks with local residents are already planned for tomorrow. I will be on the road all day to talk to the people,” says Mobility Alderman Susanne Müller-Hübsch (Green). “We have already made agreements with various neighbourhood committees. What we are going to do in the next two weeks is to make agreements about how we will plan the various meetings with the local residents. The intention is to start again, with the support of the entire college, in order to get results quickly with better participation.”
No clear timing yet
It is not yet clear how quickly that result should follow. The college has not set itself a deadline for a second attempt to concretize a circulation plan. “It is not the intention to come up with a ten-year plan. We will discuss it in the coming months, but whether it will be before the end of this year or before spring, we don’t know yet. We now have to take the time to let the calm return.”
The municipality promises to listen more to the residents of Cureghem before drawing arrows on the map again. The previous circulation plan also came about after various participation moments with local residents, but the mobility ships assure that things will be different this time. “We got off to a bad start then. That first phase coincided with the corona period, in which we could not physically come together. That’s fine now,” said Müller-Hübsch.
“What is also different now is the mobilisation in the neighbourhood. Suddenly everyone in the neighbourhood is talking about mobility. Everyone has an opinion now. We will now also have the opportunity to better explain the benefits of a circulation plan.”
‘Not so black and white’
Incidentally, the old circulation plan will not necessarily end up in the dustbin in its entirety, the mobility ships indicate. There is a chance that some elements will be retained here and there. “We are now in the process of removing the concrete blocks. That will happen in the coming days, piece by piece. Those blocks have to go and I understand that, given the symbolism,” said the ships. But completely reversing the circulation plan cannot be done just like that, it sounds like. “It’s not so black and white, that everything suddenly has to go. There are also places where the feedback has been positive. We want to avoid taking something that the neighbourhood was happy with and putting it back two days later. Discussions will follow in the coming days.”
The circulation plan will be reversed in several phases in the coming days and weeks. This will be discussed with the police on Thursday. With parts of Cureghem where the old circulation plan no longer applies and parts where it is still in force, with or without concrete blocks, there is a risk of even more traffic chaos and unsafety. “We absolutely want to avoid that, so we have to make sure that we take proper measures to reverse the circulation plan.”
‘Don’t just listen, but negotiate’
City councillor in the opposition and resident of Cureghem Gilles Verstraeten (N-VA) already reacted positively to the announcement of the council. “ This was the only decision that was still possible,” said Verstraeten. “We have to make this episode an opportunity and try to build a new relationship between politics, the public authorities and the Cureghem district.”
Citizens’ committee Committee non au plan Good Move, which has strongly opposed the circulation plan in Cureghem in recent months, has less faith in this new relationship between politics and the local residents. The committee fears that little will change.
“The residents will never accept a second version of that circulation plan. We hear that the municipality wants to draw up a new plan as soon as possible, but that does not meet the expectations of the local residents,” says Martin Vander Elst of Comité non au plan Good Move .
“We also hear that the city council wants to negotiate the new circulation plan street by street. Ships Müller-Hübsch are already doing that in certain streets and that only leads to more tension between neighbours,” said the committee spokesman. “For a fairer mobility policy, the board must realise that listening is not enough. The board will have to learn to negotiate with the local residents.”
