Beersel (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – The 3 local Mayors from Halle, Beersel and Sint-Pieters-Leeuw push for building a new police station serving their combined Zennevallei police district. The police station exists in both Halle and Sint-Pieters-Leeuw.
Mayors from Halle, Beersel, and Sint-Pieters-Leeuw led their request for building a new police station within the Zennevallei police zone because the existing station in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw lacks modern facilities and is situated too far from the area. The new facility should incorporate an onsite shooting range according to their plan, which will save money and enhance operational efficiency. The construction project seeks implementation for an operational date in 2032.
The headquarters of the Zennevallei police zone is located in Halle.
“That office is completely in order because it has been thoroughly renovated,”
Says Mayor Jo Vander Meylen (Lijst Burgemeester), mayor of Beersel and chairman of the police college.
“But our other office, in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, is outdated. It is also located in a remote corner of our police zone.”
That is why the mayors want a completely new police station in a more central location.
“The office would be closer to the centre of Sint-Pieters-Leeuw,”
Vander Meylen explains.
“In a neighbourhood where officers can also quickly get to Ruisbroek and Zuun. Lot, Huizingen and Buizingen are also not far away.”
“We already have a few locations on our radar, but we haven’t chosen a spot yet,”
Says Vander Meylen.
“We hope to be able to do the first spade of earth this legislative term. The officers would then officially start using the office in 2032.”
The officers already have a specific wish for the future police station.
“In that new post, we would like to set up our own shooting range,”
Vander Meylen explains.
“At the moment, we do our shooting exercises in Nijvel.”
“The drive back and forth to Nijvel costs us as much as the annual salary of a full-time employee,”
Says Vander Meylen.
“We want to change that. So having our own shooting range in the future police station seems logical to us.”
What is the background of the current situation of the Zennevallei police zone?
The Zennevallei police zone serves Halle and Beersel alongside Sint-Pieters-Leeuw through facilities located in contemporary Halle headquarters and traditional Sint-Pieters-Leeuw station. The Sint-Pieters-Leeuw station stands distant from the main areas, which creates challenges for effective policing. The establishment of police zones in Belgium in 2001 sought to create unified policing methods between municipalities. Specific areas continue to face challenges with their existing infrastructure.
The planned new station will solve these problems by uniting police operations while making travel expenses more manageable. The current practice of sending officers to Nijvel for shooting drills results in yearly expenses equivalent to an employee’s annual compensation.
