Fluvius places electric charging station right next to an age -old pillory: « Is that how we deal with our heritage? » (Zandhoven)

Councilor Dieter Stulens (N-VA) brought the issue to the attention during the last municipal session. « Incomprehensible how someone put an electric charging station right next to the age -old pillory, » it sounded.

Mayor Luc Van Hove (CD&V) explained that the post came in the context of the ‘Pile follows Wagen’ principle, where motorists can request a one near their home without their own charging station. Subsequently, electricity network manager Fluvius installed the charging station next to the pillory. Van Hove also finds the implantation very unhappy and hopes that the pole can still be moved.

Lines?

Whether there are no rules for placing charging points in the vicinity of historical heritage? Municipalities can make a regulations for this locally, but most local authorities do not yet have that. There are rules at the Flemish level and a special permit with public investigation must be made for a charging station near historical heritage. That does not seem to have been the case here. In that case the post is illegal.

« We are going to investigate, » promises David Callens, spokesperson for Fluvius. « This specific place may have been assigned to us. »

For years, this unique pillory was stuping behind an electricity pole on a parking next to the crown. During the reconstruction of the Dijkstraat, the pole then had a better place. This was thanks to the efforts of the Heemkundig Constant Van Everbroeck van Heemkring de Schout, who died in 2021. It is a so -called column jaw, presumably from 1688, in the form of a truncated pyramid, and decorated with a lion’s head. In Belgium there are just two: in Viersel and in Falaen (names).