“Everyone now knows Lara’s story,” says Brecht Lietar, municipal councilor for CD&V+ in Kluisbergen. “The girl who bravely fought against cancer but unfortunately could not win the battle. A working group has now developed Rond van Lara, a permanent cycling route through our region.”
The Children’s Cancer Fund immediately proved itself to be an enthusiastic partner. “This supports the demand for a permanent route that pays attention to all children who are fighting this disease. In addition, the initiative ensures that the organization has a permanent presence in the street scene and new supporting actions can be linked to it,” Lietar explains.
READ ALSO.Princess Lara gets her own Tour: “To support all children with cancer”
“Several municipalities such as Anzegem, Avelgem, Wortegem-Petegem, Kruisem and Oudenaarde have agreed to indicate the route with physical signs. After further deliberation, Maarkedal also agrees subject to certain conditions.”
Sprawl
This was not yet the case in Kluisbergen. A new attempt was therefore made at the municipal council to obtain approval. “Our group regrets the earlier decision of the council of aldermen and we therefore ask the council to revise its decision and, as with Maarkedal, to allow separate signage on the territory of our municipality. These will be placed on the existing posts of the cycling network of Tourism East Flanders,” Lietar said at the municipal council.
READ ALSO.Our reporter says goodbye to ‘balloon girl’ Lara: “She crawled under my skin, never to leave again”
At the municipal council, Mayor Willequet (Municipal Interests) stated that he wanted to support the initiative, but digitally. “Although we have great sympathy for the proposal, and also sympathize with Lara’s family and friends, we maintain our position. We already have many cycling routes, and everyone understands that we must be careful when allowing additional physical cycling routes. However good we think the proposal is, it would set a precedent for other applications that will undoubtedly come. That will result in a proliferation of additional signaling.” (Read more below the photo)
© C. Coppejans
“I don’t see why we couldn’t make an exception for this,” Emile Desimpel (CD&V+) tried. “The Eddy Merckx route and the Bolster route did have signs. Give the Tour of Lara permission and ban the following applications.”
To be consequent
“We cannot do that,” replied Alderman Thijs Cousaert (Municipal Interests). “These two routes are initiatives of the municipality. If we are consistent in this case, we must be consistent for everyone. If we allow this, there will always be a reason to also allow the following applications.”
“We certainly want to support this initiative and make it known on our municipal website, but digitally. One can perfectly follow the junctions, those poles with number plates are there. And many cyclists now use bicycle computers in which you can load the route. Please note that the province has deleted its twelve cycling routes that had their own signage. These will be returned digitally. I think we should play the digital card.”
Twelve people, together with Gemeentebelangen and N-VA, voted against CD&V’s proposal, which itself received five yes votes.
2024-04-04 10:10:33
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