Rétablissons la vérité – Noise barriers in the Oiseaux neighborhood

Fact check:     

The burgomaster and the majority never refused to install the noise barrier; on the contrary, the burgomaster negotiated for it to be built (
even though it was in fact the responsibility of the alderwoman of Foestraets, who had abandoned the idea since AWV’s refusal in early 2020.
). MR-Défi circulated this message on various fb pages in July 2020. Carel Edwards, president of Kraainem-Unie, asked MR president Bruno Van der Steen (Isabelle Fouarge is an MR councillor) to correct this, which was never done. Below is his email with the facts (
NL translation
). 

Carel Edwards<carel.edwards@kraainem.be>
To:Bruno,Van Herck Alain
Cc:Bertrand Waucquez
Thu, 3 Dec 2020 at 13:39 

Dear Mr Vandersteen,

Dear Bruno,

The mayor has repeatedly asked to correct an erroneous Facebook post by Ms. Fouarge concerning the noise barriers in the Quartier des Oiseaux. It still hasn’t happened, and you apparently still don’t understand why this July 9, 2020 Facebook post isn’t correct: “Our determination has paid off, and the noise barrier has been placed at the height of the bird district”.Thanks to Bruno Vandersteen and Elisabeth de Foestraets for having supported me in this matter through several interventions in CC, and threat of petition, to impose to the majority and its burgomaster Bertrand Waucquez (KU/PK) the placement of an anti-noise wall in our birds district which they refused since December 2019.‘.

Here are some explanations:

1. The majority has never refused to install noise barriers in the Quartier des Oiseaux.
2. It was thanks to the personal intervention of the mayor and e-mail correspondence with the AWV during the spring of 2020 that the AWV was found willing to place the noise barriers in the Quartier des Oiseaux (when in fact it was the responsibility of your colleague, the alderman for Foestraets, who had abandoned the idea since the AWV refused to do so in early 2020.). You already received all the correspondence and proof of this a few months ago through the burgomaster.
3. Your amendment to the communal council of 17/12/2019 was submitted in an incorrect format, as the communal council chairman rightly explained at the meeting. As a result, this point could not be addressed and the majority had to reject the amendment due to the poor format. And that’s what the “amendment is rejected” vote was about, not the content of your amendment. You can hardly claim that the majority refused to install the noise barriers when the content of the item was not even discussed. In addition, (i) as a former president of the local council, you know very well that the multi-year plan cannot be amended during the same session, and that the multi-year plan had to be adopted during this session. The opposition’s tactic at the time was blatantly to delay the multi-year plan; (ii) the Opposition had the opportunity to comment on the 2020-2025 multi-year plan before the December 2019 Common Council (since summer 2019, the Opposition has been invited to do so). Unfortunately, you never accepted the majority’s invitation. In your view, the majority’s initiatives in this area were “premature”. In addition, a finance committee chaired by your colleague MR took place shortly before the town council meeting. This was the ideal forum to formally put these issues on the agenda. Why didn’t you do this?
4. The emergency item concerning the noise barrier was unanimously approved by the municipal council on 28/04/2020.
5. The adaptation of the 2020-2025 multi-year plan (including the supplementary budget for the installation of anti-noise panels in the Quartier des Oiseaux) was approved by the majority at the local council meeting on July 14, 2020.The opposition abstained.

Please find below all relevant excerpts from the relevant municipal council reports.

Conclusion: your claim that the majority has refused to install noise barriers in the Quartier des Oiseaux since December 2019 is totally false.

Ms. Fouarge’s claim that these noise barriers were created because of her is – I hesitate to say it – ‘fake news’. To suggest that a “petition threat” has anything to do with it is unworthy of his use of Facebook. I therefore ask again that this allegation be corrected and withdrawn via Facebook and all other channels.

Dear Bruno, we are both presidents of a political group represented on the city council. We both have the interests of the people and the municipality of Kraainem at heart. I therefore invite you to work together constructively and stop all this bickering. Citizens don’t care, and all of us (majority and opposition representatives) can make better use of our energy to get things done in the commune.

Always ready to have a constructive conversation with you,

Yours sincerely

Carel Edwards

President Kraainem-Unie