Accoording to RTL News, hundreds of construction projects in the Netherlands need to be shut down or reviewed, due to court ruling on nitrogen rules.
In provinces alone, about 1,571 procedures are terminated or on hold for permits to be reviewed.
The Council of State ruled in May that the programme approach nitrogen (PAS) to reduce nitrogen in the Netherlands is not sufficiently effective. The Government had already given permission for all sorts of construction projects that led to even more nitrogen, such as the construction of roads or the expansion of cattle sheds.
In the PAS, measures were taken to reduce the adverse effects, but the Raad van State ruled that they were insufficient. By this ruling, hundreds of projects of the national government and of provinces and municipalities have to be reviewed.
Large government projects such as Lelystad Airport and more asphalt at the A12 and A9 must therefore be reviewed.
The ruling also has a major impact on building homes.
‘ Utter panic at municipalities ‘
It is now necessary to review all construction activities, even those with a very small amount of extra emissions, explains Jan Fokkema, Director of Association of Project developers Neprom to RTL Nieuws. “This review will often turn out to be a so-called environmental impact Assessment (EIA) and that leads to additional delays and costs”. According to Fokkema there is ‘ utter panic ‘ among municipalities with construction plans. “All housing projects of any size are silent.”
By: NU.nl
