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 Municipality of Langedijk
Canal Link Action Plan Historic link between Langedijk and water restored
The Museum Broeker Veiling, which is the oldest ‘floating vegetable market’ in the world, and the Oosterdel area are today the most tangible memories of the historic link between Langedijk and the water. Due to various land consolidations and the construction of new houses, factories and roads, the size of the ‘Empire of a Thousand Islands’ has been greatly reduced during the past decades. Participation in the EuropeanCanal Link project is now enabling the municipal executive to turn the tide. Originating from the council’s programme for 2002-2006, improving navigability in the municipal executive of Langedijk, in particular the Achterburg canal, has been promoted to forming one of the main goals in the Canal Link Action Plan.
Forty years ago, the landscape on both sides of the ‘long dyke’ was still dominated by water and hundreds of fertile islands where market-gardeners grew things like potatoes and vegetables. However, due to various land consolidations most of the navigable polders were transformed into polders with roads. The cabbage for which Langedijk was famous was no longer transported by water but by road. As a result, the oldest ‘floating vegetable market’ in the world lost its function and could only be saved by turning it into a museum. Also in other respects, horticulture lost ground. A lot of horticultural land in Langedijk was turned into new residential areas and businessparks
The Achterburg canal stands as a model for the damage that has been done to the landscape and in a cultural-historic respect throughout past decades. The canal was certainly not completely filled in, like the Voorburg canal, but due to the construction of roads and residential areas, navigability suffered a severe set-back. This has increasingly been regretted in recent years.
Renewed interest
The renewed interest for the water in Langedijk has not come out of the blue. Supported by the results of a survey amongst the population, a local organisation like the Stichting Waterrijk Langedijk, for example, has campaigned for many years to make the Achterburg canal navigable. The Regiegroep Cultuurhistorie Langedijk, the Stichting Langedijker Verleden and the Langedijk Platform for Recreation and Tourism also share the opinion that the cultural history and the beauty of the landscape of Langedijk offer possibilities that have not been utilised til now.
This does not mean that the municipal executive has not been doing anything during the past few years. For example, as a part of the ‘1,000 Islands Landscape Monument’, making the Achterburg canal navigable has been one of the key projects of ‘De Blauwe Loper’ (The Blue Corridor) project, which in turn is one of the spearpoints of the collaboration between Heerhugowaard-Alkmaar-Langedijk (HAL).
In addition, the municipal executive included the ‘Navigability of the Langedijk municipality’ project in the council’s programme for 2002-2006. This resulted in an executive assignment from the Management Team (MT) for the sub-project ‘Navigability AchterburgCanal’. Last year, this was extended somewhat through the participation of Langedijk in the European Canal Link project. Among others, the MT decided then to not only look at the Achterburg canal and immediate neighbourhood, but also to examine the navigability in the whole of Langedijk. The formulation of a Langedijk Navigability Development Plan and re-evaluation of the local navigation policy are concrete results of broadening the original objective.
Participating in Canal Link also offered the municipal executive the possibility of giving an impulse to dormant plans for a water theme park, called Civilion. In close consultation with the executive boards of Civilion and Museum Broeker Veiling, this opportunity has been seized with both hands.
What is Canal Link?
Canal Link is a sub-project of ‘Interreg IIIB North Sea Region’, a subsidy programme of the European Union. The main goal of the project is ‘to investigate how the regional network of navigable waterways in West Europe can be developed further on the grounds of the cultural and environmental inheritance of the waterways themselves’. Thanks to the proximity of the Alkmaar (Omval)-KolhornCanal, it turned out to be possible to integrate Langedijk’s plans with the Achterburg canal in Canal Link. This is because the canal enables water-sporters to sail through to the North Sea and from there to the other countries taking part in Canal Link – a condition to be eligible for a subsidy.
Besides the Netherlands, Sweden, England, Belgium and Germany are also taking part in the European project. Under the flag of Canal Link, six pilot projects will be carried out from 2003 through 2006. The project most similar to the situation in Langedijk is the project in the German city of Bremen. This municipal executive is working on improving the navigability of the system of waterways that used to be used to transport turf from the ‘Devil’s Marsh’ to the centre of Bremen. Something completely different is the Canal Link project in the Swedish Varmland where, among others, an attempt is being made to link various canals with each other with, for example, the aid of a system that can be used to transport boats over land.
Langedijk has been granted a European subsidy of 400,000 euro for its participation in Canal Link.
Exchanging Knowledge
The exchange of knowledge and experience gained during the six pilot projects is an important objective of Canal Link. To this end, various seminars and workshops will be held in 2004 and 2005. Langedijk will host such a workshop in 2005 during which representatives from all the participating countries will exchange comprehensive knowledge about the progress of the various sub-projects. A closing conference will be held in Great Britain in 2006. There is also a good chance that a follow-up project will be organised in the framework of the Interreg IIIB North Sea Region Programme and that this will offer Langedijk new opportunities for involvement.
The coordinating Steering Group of Canal Link is established in Denmark. It speaks for itself that a project organisation has also been set up in Langedijk. The MT acts as the principal of the five-man internal Project group Canal Link.
The municipal executive attaches a great value to the advice of a Sounding Board that will be made up of local residents and representatives of, among others, the village council concerned, the Recreation and Tourism Platform, the Stichting Langedijk Waterrijk, Museum Broeker Veiling, the Stichting Langedijker Verleden and the business community.
Topical leader
Within the international project organisation of Canal Link and together with the Stichting Recreatietoervaart Nederland (SRN) (Dutch Recreational Navigation Foundation), Langedijk is the topical leader for the sub-theme ‘Strategic development of the network of waterways’. The other sub-themes are ‘North Sea links’, ‘Entrepreneurship, development of industry and community’ and ‘Project management and publicity’.
Three goals can be distinguished within the ‘Strategic development of the network of waterways’ sub-theme: the classification of recreational waterways, research into the processing of wastewater from boats and the removal of gaps and bottlenecks in the network of waterways. Thanks to close cooperation with and the experience and know-how of the SRN, the municipal executive can focus on the third goal that, as mentioned, was initially limited to making the Achterburg canal navigable, but which in the meantime has become much broader in numerous respects. Nevertheless, for the sake of ease, the discussion on a European level is still about the ‘Achterburg canal project’. The six products that will be developed further during the coming years in the framework of this project in Langedijk are described in the following paragraphs:
1: Lepelaar bridge
2: Civilion location study
3: Civilion feasibility study
4: Langedijk Navigability Development Plan
5: Recommendations for navigation policy
6: Explore grant options
Lepelaar bridge
At just a stone’s throw away from Museum Broeker Veiling, the navigability of the Achterburg canal is thwarted by the Lepelaar, the road that connects the Dorpsstraat in Broek op Langedijk to the Oostelijke Randweg in Zuid-Scharwoude. Partly due to a gift, a bridge can be built in 2004 that will lead the Lepelaar not straight through but over the Achterburg canal. Including the Noorderplas, this will mean that a very attractive part of Langedijk will be opened up for tourists,
holiday-makers, visitors to Museum Broeker Veiling and, last but not least, the inhabitants of Langedijk.
The municipal executive explicitly regards the realisation of the bridge as a pilot project that in the framework of Canal Link will provide know-how and experience that can be used later on. In the meantime, the requisite clause 19 procedure has been completed and so the construction of the bridge can start soon and be completed this year.
Civilion Location Study
For many years, Langedijk has been considered as a location for Civilion, a water theme park with, among others, bridges, sluices and boat lifts. The synergy with Museum Broeker Veiling and the consequences in cultural, historic, tourist and economic fields justify the link with Canal Link for which the municipal executive has chosen.
The municipal executive performed a location study this spring, after the board had eastablished the criteria for the theme park. Thanks to the proximity of the Twuyvermolen, the railway bridge over the Kanaal Alkmaar (Omval)-Kolhorn and the proximity of Museum Broeker Veiling, the area to the east of Sint Pancras is the best for Civilion. Depending on the results of the feasibility study, a decision has to be made about how the theme park will be set up. An alternative for a compact model like ‘The Efteling’ is a multi-location model like the ZuiderzeeMuseum in Enkhuizen in which the civil-engineering structures will be spread out over a larger part of Langedijk.
Civilion Feasibility Study
Based on the results of the location study and the Programme of Requirements that will result from that, the Civilion Foundation and the Museum Broeker Veiling will carry out research into the financial feasibility of a water theme park in Langedijk. The idea is that the feasibility study will result in recommendations going to the board in 2004. The municipal executive will have a coordinating role. In the run-up to a definitive decision about the future of the theme park, Civilion, Museum Broeker Veiling and the municipal executive signed a declaration of intent in May 2004.
Langedijk Navigability Development Plan
The participation in the Canal Link project offers the municipal executive of Langedijk the possibility of formulating ideas for development. Set down in an implementation plan, this Langedijk Navigability Development Plan forms the guideline for all the activities that will be undertaken by the municipal executive to improve navigability during the coming years. These activities not only concern the removal of physical bottlenecks that hamper navigability, such as dams, culverts and filled-in parts of the Achterburg canal for example, but also the ecological, cultural, tourism and economic consequences of improved navigability. Completely in the spirit of Canal Link, it will also be explicitly examined whether there are any opportunities to link up with the regional (and thereby also the national and international) network of waterways.
An Action Plan forms the foundation for the phase in which by means of inventory and research the basic information is collected for a resultant Terms of Reference Document and the ultimate vision. The basic document contains a description of the planological framework on a national, provincial and regional level in the following areas of policy: recreation, nature, cultural-historical, town and country planning and infrastructure. On a regional and local level, it also describes the planning and functional situation, the recreational structure and the ecological green structure, including research into the flora and fauna in and around the waterways in Langedijk. After a study of the cultural-historical link between Langedijk and the water, a so-called SWOT analysis will be made. This will examine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the themes of history, spatial planning, recreation and ecology.
The Terms of Reference Document, the result of the inventory and research phase, will in turn form the starting point of the final vision. A workshop will be organised during the final vision-forming phase. This will be attended by, among others, the project team, the sounding board, a cultural historian and representatives of the SRN and the Hoogheemraadschap Hollands Noorderkwartier.
The municipal executive is coordinating the formulation of the Langedijk Navigability Development Plan, which must be ready by the end of 2005.
Recommendations for navigation policy
One of the aims of the reformulation of the local navigation policy is that the municipal executive wants to guarantee that improved navigability in Langedijk goes hand-in-hand with an optimal living climate for human beings, plants and animals. The municipal executive can thereby make grateful use of the know-how and experience of Canal Link partner, SRN. The recommendations for the navigation policy must be ready in 2005 and they will serve as a basis for decisionmaking by the municipal executive.
Research subsidy possibilities
It is expected that the projects that are taking place in the framework of Canal Link cannot be completely financed with the European subsidy and the supplementary contribution by the municipal executive. Research must determine whether there are any extra subsidy possibilities and, if so, how they can be used.
The research must also determine whether there are possibilities of combining the work being performed under Canal Link with other operations, for example, in the framework of the ‘Long-term Safe’ project or the programme for large-scale maintenance of waterways.
Canal Link from year to year
The Canal Link project started with a meeting in Edinburgh in 2003, attended by representatives of the municipal executive of Langedijk. Most of last year was spent preparing the various sub-projects that will be detailed further in 2004, 2005 and 2006. An overview is given below:
2004
Declaration of Intent Museum Broeker Veiling, Foundation Civilion and the municipal executive of Langedijk
Installation of sounding board
Completeion of Lepelaar Bridge pilot project
Civilion location study by the municipal executive
Civilion feasibility study by the Civilion Foundation and Museum Broeker Veiling
Start of development plan
Development new navigation policy
2005
Presentation of new navigation policy of Langedijk municipal executive
Research into additional subsidy options
Presentation of Navigability Development Plan by Langedijk municipal executive
Canal Link symposium in Langedijk
2006
Closing Canal Link conference in Bremen
Presentation of Langedijk Navigability Implementation Plan
Canal Link Action Plan - Historic Link Between Langedijk and Water Restored
Geo-share map of Langedijk canals (in draft format)
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