SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – Sixteen people who suffer “unbearable” stench from factory pig farms stood against the state in an appeal court in The Hague on Thursday.

The group, who live in regions where more than 10 million pigs are raised for slaughter, claim the state is not doing enough to protect them from lie-altering nuisance. In 2022, a local court ruled that the state must compensate them and respect a stricter odour limit around homes but the government appealed.

Pieter Catsburg, one of the plaintiffs from Zeeland, said that long legal battles and hours-long discussion about tables and figures did not do justice to the reality of his life amid 16 livestock farms.

“We are people: we are human beings who sit in the stench, an appalling amount of stench,” he told the court. “Lots of figures are thrown around. The pigs exceed the norms and the government acts as though nothing is wrong… This is about stink, people who are day and night in the stench, and are losing their lives because of it.”

Edward Brans, a lawyer representing the infrastructure ministry, argued that the previous verdict imposed a norm above which smell pollution is unlawful – “19.4 odour units per cubic metre”. But he said the figure was difficult to source and did not distinguish between direct polluters and “background” stench.

“By setting this boundary value, the court is treading in the domain of the lawmaker,” he told a courtroom of civil servants and several dozen concerned residents.

“A report found that in Limburg, North Brabant and Gelderland, primary pollution of 20 odour units per cubic metre affected around 2,000 non-industrial buildings, but it would be 5,000 to 6,000 if you measure background loads. There is a huge difference in the homes that are affected. We are living in a society where there is smell nuisance – that is just a fact.”

“Balance interests”

He said the government must “balance” the interests of residents and businesses – which pay for permits – but has extended laws for three municipalities to reduce animal numbers if stench pollution stacks up. Mathijs Peters, also for the state, admitted background smell is only routinely taken into account in farm permits when new housing is being built – not for existing stock.

Nout Verbeek, lawyer for the plaintiffs, accused the government of time-wasting when it could have appealed directly to the Supreme Court for a legal precedent. “The government has no complete plans for nitrogen-based pollution and the same is true of the stink problem,” he said. “It all falls on the heads of individual citizens who have the misfortune to live in a particular place.”

Pigs per farm up

The Netherlands currently has a population of just over 18 million and 10.6 million pigs, which cause particular issues with stench. According to Dutch statistics office CBS figures in November, 2020 measures to clean up livestock farming introduced have brought down the number of pig farms by 3.5% to some 3,000. However the number of pigs per farm has risen by almost a fifth to 3,400, in the last seven years.

Buy-out plans to reduce animal-based pollution in the Netherlands closed for application in December and the court heard that 1,700 farmers, including pig and chicken firms, have signed up. The court verdict is expected on March 25.

For some, though, it’s too late. One of the plaintiffs, who was present in court, said he had made his decision already. “It’s not for me any more,” he told Dutch News. “I have moved.” (By Senay Boztas)

(DutchNews)

SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – International criminal gangs are stealing tractors from the Netherlands and transporting them to other European countries such as Poland and Romania, police and agricultural organisations have warned.

The Midden-Nederland police division said there had been “a wave of tractor thefts” since last October, with two or three vehicles a week disappearing from rural provinces such as Groningen, Overijssel, Flevoland and Noord-Brabant.

Police suspect that the thefts are the work of organised gangs based in Eastern Europe because similar trends have been detected in Belgium and Germany. A trailer containing several agricultural vehicles was stopped at the German-Polish border in the autumn.

Gaby de Ruiter, of agricultural sector organisation LTO, said the thieves were highly professional. “The only thing they leave behind are tyre marks,” she told AD.nl. “We are warning everyone who will listen, but it hasn’t stopped.”

“More cameras needed”

Michiel Spriensma, of Groningen-based tractor dealer GroeNoord, said his company had lost three brand-new machines in November, worth €100,000 each, that were later tracked to Romania.

Flevoland has become a favourite destination for thieves, partly because there are relatively few numberplate recognition cameras on the province’s motorways.

Moreno van Loenhout of commercial safety group Platform Veilig Ondernemen urged police to install more cameras in Flevoland. “These cameras are a very good way of filtering out road users who only appear in rural areas at suspicious times,” he said.

(DutchNews)

SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – The former mayor of Groningen, Koen Schuiling, was pressed into taking early retirement by home affairs minister Judith Uitermark after he was reported to police for allegedly exposing himself in his car, local media reported on Wednesday.

Schuiling stepped down in September at the age of 65, a year before the end of his term, after what he called an “extraordinarily intensive period”.

“Reflecting on the past year, I have to conclude that I no longer have the energy needed to commit myself fully to my duties,” he said at the time.

But Groningen-based newspaper Dagblad van het Noorden reported that Schuiling had been given an ultimatum by the justice minister after the mayor was fined for allegedly masturbating in his car by the roadside.

Schuiling has denied the claim and was due to appear in court on Wednesday to contest the €250 fine issued by the prosecution service. He claims he was suffering from stomach complaints caused by a medical condition.

“I will convince the court on the basis of all the available information that this is a case of an unfortunate misunderstanding,” Schuiling said.

Stomach pains

“In March 2024 I was driving alone in my car,” he said in a statement. “I was suffering from sudden severe stomach pains due to my medical condition. My efforts to subdue the pain were perceived by another road user as provocative behaviour. Clearly this was not the case.”

Police received two earlier complaints in the previous six months of the mayor behaving inappropriately at the wheel of his vehicle. Local police chief Martin Sitalsing and chief prosecutor Diederik Greive called on him to step down for indecent exposure.

The king’s commissioner for Groningen, René Paas, raised the issue with the newly appointed interior minister, Judith Uitermark, pointing out that Schuiling could be politically compromised by the affair.

On the orders of the ministry, Schuiling was excluded from local government meetings such as the safety advisory council and announced a month later that he was stepping down.

A spokesman for the interior ministry said the mayor had taken the decision to quit alone, while Schuiling has denied that it was prompted by the roadside incident.

At the time he said that the strain of handling high-profile issues such as the reparations for gas drilling, the coronavirus pandemic and overcrowding at the asylum seekers’ reception centre in nearby Ter Apel had taken their toll.

Wednesday’s hearing, which was being heard in open court, was halted before it could begin because of a procedural error.

(DutchNews)

SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – In total, the police were called out to deal with 8,292 incidents and made 245 arrests during the New Year celebrations, according to the justice ministry’s official report on the evening.

The fire brigade was called out to deal with 4,106 fires, an increase of 400 on last year. Six of the fires were major.

However, despite the number of incidents, there has been a reduction over the past four years, the report said, while pointing out that all fireworks were banned during the two coronavirus years.  

This year 295 police officers and 49 emergency service workers were either physically or verbally attacked, a sharp rise when compared with the previous four years. “These were small-scale but serious incidents which had a major impact on emergency service workers nationwide,” the report said.

Most of the trouble was in the north and east of the country and although there was a 22% increase in the number of incidents in Amsterdam, the capital had far fewer call-outs than The Hague and Rotterdam.

Meanwhile the Dutch safety institute VeiligheidNL said 1,162 people had been treated for firework-related injuries, roughly in line with last year.

Of these, 367 people were taken to hospital with more serious injuries. Several dozen people lost a hand, finger or part of their foot.

Some 37% of injuries were down to illegal fireworks, 27% to fireworks bought legally in the Netherlands and the rest is unknown. Some 37% of those injured were under the age of 16.

In total, 19 towns and cities have been declared firework-free zones but the impact has been “limited”, VeiligheidNL director Martijntje Bakker said. “We have to ask ourselves as a society if it is acceptable that every New Year, more than one thousand people, including children, are injured and in some cases scarred for life.”

The right-wing government has already said it has no plans to introduce a nationwide fireworks ban

(DutchNews)