LTO Noord Utrecht refuses to sign ‘Green Grows With’ agreement

LTO Noord will not sign the “Groen Groeit Mee” charter, a political framework for the province of Utrecht in which many green missions are incorporated. “There is a lack of awareness that space for one is always at the expense of space for the other,” says Chairman Bert van Doncelaer of LTO Noord Utrecht.

The province of Utrecht wants to achieve an additional 10,000 hectares of green space by 2030, for example by combining the Forest Strategy and Green Contour. The county has sought support from municipalities, site management organizations and LTO Noord.

“We’ve discussed it with department managers and the result is that we haven’t signed it,” replies Van Donselaer. “This has to do with the fact that it’s fuzzy and we don’t see any tools to organize things.”

a lot of pain

According to LTO Noord director, the agreement is typical of how the “city” sees the countryside. In the small, crowded province of Utrecht in particular, the pressure on farmland is already enormous. “It’s incredibly detrimental to agriculture that the county could easily consider adding space for its own purpose,” says Van Doncellaar.

“She doesn’t seem to realize that we are eating up the county. The ease with which the county expects to build an additional 10,000 hectares on top of the tasks of energy, housing, infrastructure and nature is painful.

In addition to LTO Noord, the various agricultural groups in the county have also signed the agreement’green grows with‘ Not.

Mutual understanding

Van Donslar further discusses the mutual understanding between town and country. “There is a lack of awareness that space for one always comes at the expense of space for the other,” he says.

The ambitions of the city of Utrecht are enormous. It’s very easy to think that the outside area facilitates this. If they want to turn on the light, they should build a solar garden or a windmill in the countryside. A city sewage treatment plant enters our area. Craif, we’re analyzing the city and its drain.

The clarity of this needs to be broken, says LTO Noord Director. A dialogue must begin between city and country. I can only now savor the arrogance, although it may not have been intended that way. We must not forget that the first city could be created only because of the well-functioning countryside. We are now dealing with roughly the same countryside.