The construction of the new football stadium in Sint-Andries has been a headache for years. At the end of 2021, the Flemish government issued the first environmental permit for the stadium with room for 40,000 fans. However, at the beginning of 2023, this permit was annulled by the Council for Permit Disputes, after (predictable) protests from local residents. They criticized, among other things, the mobility plan that accompanied the permit.
Club Brugge filed an appeal with the Council of State against the annulment of that permit. The football club bit the dust in that case on Thursday morning. The Council of State ruled that the objections had indeed not been taken into sufficient account.
While the appeal procedure was still ongoing, Club Brugge drew up a new file based on the comments. And just as things are suddenly going well on the field, the club also receives positive news in that area and the path to a new permit now appears to be open.
According to the regional environmental permit committee, which has bundled all advice on Club Brugge’s construction plans, “the nuisance and the effects on people and the environment and the risks for external safety caused by the requested project can be reduced to an acceptable level, provided the permit conditions are complied with.” level are limited”.
The conditions include a strict limitation to 40,000 seats. No other major events are allowed to take place in the stadium, which will be built next to the current Jan Breydel.
New mobility plan
It is now up to the competent minister Zuhal Demir (N-VA) to officially turn the light on green or red. Her cabinet announced on Thursday that that decision will be made in the coming weeks. There seems to be a good chance that Demir will grant a permit for the second time. After the destruction of the first permit, Demir announced that she would “help develop a solution”.
In the second, updated plan, the mobility component was adjusted, among other things. The location of the stadium in a neighborhood already causes problems at every home match; a bigger stadium would only make that bigger. The city of Bruges also deleted the provision that the club had to provide a parking lot on its own grounds, something that is virtually impossible in that location. Club Brugge now wants to work with shuttle car parks where supporters can park their cars and then be taken to the stadium by buses.
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