This is the most popular place in Flanders to perform work: « We can always use extra manpower » (Sint-Pieters-Leeuw)
In the rose garden, all help is welcome to weed the weeds. – © IDH
Over the past five years, people who entered into a work sentence have had no less than 3,133 hours weed in the rose garden in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw. The rose garden is therefore the most popular place in Flanders to perform a work sentence.
Perpetrators of crimes who run into the lamp often receive a work sentence from the judge in order to avoid a criminal record. They must then roll up their sleeves for free with a socially relevant assignment. Classics are a day at the green service or cleaning up waste. But figures that Flemish MP Andy Pieters (N-VA) requested that the Nature & Bos Agency also likes to assume the help of people who have to perform a work sentence.
Of the 5,800 hours that was performed with work sentences in the past five years in Flanders, no fewer than 3,133 hours went in the Rozentuin in the Colomapark in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw. « That is because especially the team boss who works in the rose garden sees the usefulness of this, » says Jeroen Denaeghel of the Nature & Bos Agency. « The rose garden is a very labor -intensive place. Because we use much fewer pesticides in recent years, we have to tackle the weeds by hand. We can always use extra manpower for that. »
No training needed
« Wling weeds is fairly simple in itself. You don’t need large or complicated machines for it. So it remains safe and those who want to get started here should not first follow a specific course. That is sometimes the case in nature areas. Everyone can get started right away, » says Jeroen Denaeghel.
Other popular locations where people can perform a work sentence at the Nature & Bos Agency include the Hallerbos, the Soniën Forest, the Museum Garden in Gaasbeek but in the nature reserves in De Panne and in the Vagevuurbos.
« These work sentences in nature are a textbook example of how people can also contribute to a clean Flanders by performing a punishment and yet showing that there is no impunity, » said Flemish MP Andy Pieters.(IDH)
