Holsbeek (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – In Holsbeek, there is no construction for a new sports park that is close to the Kortrijk-Dutsel recycling park. The municipality was granted a permit for the works half a year ago, but football club KDN United, which was supposed to pay for the construction of the canteen and change room, does not consider it as unaffordable anymore.
In Holsbeek, there are plans to build a new sports park next to the currently operating Kortrijk-Dutsel recycling park, but for some reason, construction has stopped.
The canteen and the changing rooms were to be financed through a local football club that was supposed to avail a loan six months ago but this did not happen because of high costs involved and the financial trouble the club is facing. However, the municipality continues its efforts to build the new club and is considering more cost-effective solutions for the funding, whereas the club has old-fashioned accommodation and funding problems as reported by VRT.
“Our canteen and our fields are worn out. Our ceiling is about to collapse, there are mice and rats. There are tarpaulins on the roof to keep the rain out. This cannot continue,”
says chairwoman Ilse Organe.
The municipality allows the football club to move to the new sports park in Kortrijk-Dutsel, but KDN United no longer wants that because the project is too expensive. The municipality would pay for the new football fields, but KDN itself has to pay for the construction of the canteen and the changing rooms.
“We were shocked by the price tag. Around 1.6 million euros. We simply do not have that much money. We absolutely want to continue to exist, but we have no idea how we can raise so much money in such a short time. The people of Holsbeek are very fond of the club, but supporting us financially is something else,”
sighs Ilse.
In the meantime, the municipality of Holsbeek wants to continue with the construction of the sports park.
“The club will receive a subsidy of 350,000 euros from Flanders. Their infrastructure is on municipal land, but they have to place the building themselves. Otherwise, 10 other associations will be here tomorrow, so to speak, wanting a building,”
Mayor Bram Van Baelen (Team Holsbeek) said earlier.
“We are still going for it in any case. Perhaps we can work on a smaller scale or look for other sources of financing.”
What led to the current standstill in Holsbeek’s sports park project?
Holsbeek’s sport park has been stalled I suspect they are similar withжи the other large-scale developments, which may entail problems such as funding, planning, as coordination issues, though the issues with Holsbeek are not specifically found in the search results. According to the projects that have been implemented in other places, some of them noted that delays normally originate from issues such as funding, purchase of the land, or a change of plan.
For instance, a sports park involving construction in Cochrane, Alberta, was slowed down on the site plans, necessitating new concepts because of the changes in the size of stormwater ponds. Similarly, the construction of the sports park in Penn Township was only slowed down by the matters of grant funding, construction materials, and permits.
The current situation, which seems to have put Holsbeek’s project at a standstill, could be a result of challenges like poor funding, designing, or approval hitches that one is likely to encounter in project development. So, assuming there aren’t any local pertinent data, it is rational to assume that such typical development issues have something to do with the stopover of the construction of Holsbeek’s Sports Park.
