Ronnie Pieters from Leeuwarden, at the Council of State, is unsuccessful in his fight against wood burning nuisance in his residential area of Westeinde.
According to the highest administrative court, the municipality has conducted sufficient investigation and it does not appear that there is a disproportionate nuisance.
Pieters, leader of the Frisians for Fresh Air movement, has been fighting the smoke from wood and pellet stoves for over five years. His asthmatic wife gets attacks.
Municipal inspectors measured and smelled a total of twelve times in the autumn of 2018. They perceived a slight smoke odor without it being perceived by them as a nuisance, according to the report. According to Pieters, the research contained imperfections. That is why he first went to court and then to the Council of State. With both he now gets the lid on the nose.
In its ruling of Wednesday, the Council of State explicitly points to the insights about health and wood burning that existed in 2018 and 2019, the years that the municipality of Leeuwarden took its decisions on the matter in Westeinde. At the time, there were no generally accepted insights as to whether, and under what circumstances and at what frequency smoke from wood-burning stoves caused harm to humans.
In February this year, the RIVM calculated that 23 percent of all particulate matter emitted comes from wood combustion. The ministry launched heating alerts when the weather is too bad to burn wood.
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