Local businesses in Amsterdam’s historic city centre are threatening to take the council to court if it goes ahead with placing a garbage boat on the Singel canal, just behind the royal palace and in the heart of the Unesco heritage site.
Locals are afraid the boat will cause nuisance, including more traffic, rats and stench in an already crowded area.
The local council has requested a five-year licence for the boat, which is currently further down the Singel canal, east of Koningsplein. The licence for that location has expired.
“We are working hard to collect garbage bags from the streets in the centre and that will improve liveability and safety,” a spokesman told the Parool.
The boat is servicing the Nine Streets shopping area where waste will be collected using small carts and taken to the boat. At the end of the day, the waste will be taken elsewhere to minimise the smell.
But owner of the Het Paleis café Ana Castro told the Parool “a stinking boat next to my terrace and trundling carts at one of the busiest crossroads on the Singel is unacceptable.”
According to local hairdresser Marc van de Hare, the new location is “moving the problem to a place where the nuisance from it will be even greater” and suggests the council look to the IJ as an alternative.
The council, which has been grabbling with the city’s rubbish mountain for years, said it expects to have a provisional licence in a couple of weeks. The locals, who have formed an action group, will have six weeks to make their objections clear.
“If this plan goes ahead, we will take legal action,” they told the paper.
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