Vlissingen is a small city, in a beautiful location at the mouth of the river Scheldt, the main entrance from the North Sea to the port of Antwerp. The City has about 45 000 inhabitants (or 90 000 in the built up area including its twin-city Middelburg). It has a historic centre, beaches with a promenade, an old historic shipyard, an old harbour, a new container harbour in development and a large industrial area to the east of the City.

At the beginning of the nineties Vlissingen started an ambitious energy-saving plan, following the procedure developed by NOVEM. There was a “loose” cooperation with the twin-city Middelburg, while the cooperation with the utility company was very close.

The energy-saving policy was directed towards:

In 1994/1995 an energy-management system was introduced for municipal buildings and schools (25 sites).

At the beginning of the nineties Vlissingen started an ambitious and comprehensive energy-saving plan. The future development of the City is focused on promoting environmental plans and/or energy saving measures relating to CO2 emissions.

The former shipyard area will play the most important role in this and will also set off other municipal activities. However, the implementation faces a lot of challenges. The liberalisation of the energy-market makes it more difficult to solve the problems and increases the effort needed.

The energy-saving plan is comprehensive and included transport issues for instance proposing to link up the cycle path network and to enforce a more stringent parking and location policy. Public transport will be improved.

The future development of the City has very much centred on promoting environmental plans and/or energy saving measures relating to CO2 emissions. The RSG (a former shipyard) area will play the most important role in this and will also set off other municipal activities.

A newly designed neighbourhood will be developed at the RSG area. It will have its own identity and at the same time deliver a contribution to a positive image of the whole City. A fixed starting point is the fact that Vlissingen is, and wants to present itself as, a maritime City. In the new scheme a procedure for developing new projects has been worked out.

The acquisition costs and the site preparation costs determine the costs of the ground and this is the mainfactor determining whether it is possible to achieve an attractive plan in line with the municipality’s high ambitions.

The action plan has the following basic objectives:

The municipality faces a lot of challenges. The liberalisation of the energy-market makes it more difficult to solve the problems and increases the effort needed. This is even more complicated because a small city like Vlissingen only has limited possibilities, due to its organisational infrastructure.

Action is necessary and the municipality takes its own responsibility in drafting a new plan to face the new reality. However, the financial uncertainties are great and in the future any sustainable policy is likely to come under pressure. The municipality holds on to its role in management and will have to develop and maintain a strong position in the negotiations while encouraging cooperation with the players on the market to achieve positive results.

Municipality of Vlissingen - Department of Spatial Planning and Environment
Mr. H.J. Tammes, tel. +31 118 487442

01/01/1994

case

Urban Policy > Urban environment

Environmental sustainability, Urban renewal