In September, Beveren, Kruibeke and Zwijndrecht will decide on the new name of a total of 80 streets. Across the three municipalities, there are now no fewer than 152 streets with the same name, or that are too similar and can cause confusion. Think of Kerkstraat, Molenstraat or Polderstraat. To avoid confusion with emergency services, for example, the double streets should be given a different name. The municipal authorities can count on expert input from, among others, local authorities, who will propose new names.
READ ALSO. The new merged municipality has no fewer than 152 duplicate street names and a solution must be found for this: check here whether your street will be given a new name
The residents of Boomgaardstraat in Melsele are already taking matters into their own hands. Their street, which only has about twenty houses, will have to be given a different name since the Boomgaardstraat in Burcht is significantly longer with many more inhabitants. Jan Holvoet (72) walked through the street with a petition. “I started asking people what name they would prefer for our street if it had to change,” says Jan. “Most votes went to Kleine Boomgaardstraat, although several proposals have been made, such as Boomweg or Kerststallaan.”
Old orchard
According to Jan, the fact that orchard would still appear in the name is a logical choice. “When I was a child, there was an orchard here with apple, pear, cherry and cherry trees,” says Jan. “I came to live here in 1973 as the youngest on the street and now I am the second oldest. We are all so used to it being Boomgaardstraat here and would like to keep it that way.”
The petition has just over twenty signatures and was delivered at the town hall. “Hopefully they will take our request into account when deciding on a new name, although we do not yet know who or what will decide on that.” The fate of Boomgaardstraat now lies in the hands of the advisory council, which will make proposals to the city council about the various street names that will be changed.
In mid-April, the municipalities will communicate to residents how the entire process will proceed. The intention is that residents will have a say in the new street names. Hopefully that discussion will go more smoothly than that of the name for the new merged municipality, which fizzled out at the beginning of this year when both Kruibeke and Zwijndrecht rejected the proposed name Beveren Waas.
READ ALSO. Zwijndrecht disapproves of Beveren Waas as the name of a new merged municipality: “We will have to say something nice”
){kind=link}