The municipality of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre is preparing to mobilise in the run-up to the public enquiry due to open in a few weeks' time to renew the environmental permit for Brussels Airport, Mayor Benoît Cerexhe said on Friday.
Specifically, the municipality recently appointed a lawyer specialising in Flemish regional legislation to assist it in its defence in the current proceedings.
On its website, it is also inviting residents to come and pick up posters to put up in their windows to get involved and circulate information.
"It is important that everyone sends an individual letter instead complaining with petitions. The municipality is at the disposal of residents to help them, if necessary, to defend their rights in this particularly complex matter," the Mayor said in a statement.
The environmental permit for the operator of Brussels Airport, issued in 2004, expires in July 2024. The operator submitted an application for renewal to the competent Flemish administration on 6 July. The administration has 30 days in which to examine the application to determine whether or not it is complete.
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Mayor Benoît Cerexhe says that he has not been aware of any issue weighing as heavily on the residents of the municipality as the overflight issue, since well before he took office in 2013.
"This environmental permit renewal procedure is a unique opportunity for every resident to make their voice heard," he said.
"I hope that anyone who has ever written about being fed up with the overflight, on social media, or to me or the Mobility Minister, will voice their concerns about the airport operator's plans, which are expansionist and completely out-of-step with the challenges of tomorrow," he added.
