Kustburgemeesters willen nog meer commerce op het strand
Kustburgemeesters willen nog meer commerce op het strand
Nog nooit stonden zoveel strandbars aan de Belgische kust.
Nog nooit stonden zoveel strandbars aan de Belgische kust. De regels zijn tien jaar oud en kustburgemeesters lobbyen vandaag voor een verdere versoepeling, al raken ze het onderling niet eens. Verschillende badplaatsen zoeken alleszins de grens op van wat mag. Volgens de natuur- en milieubeweging zit het strand echt wel vol.
Coastal mayors want even more commerce on the beach
Never before have so many beach bars been on the Belgian coast. The rules are ten years old and coastal mayors are lobbying today for further relaxation, although they are not getting along among themselves. Several seaside resorts are all pushing the limits of what is allowed. According to the nature and environmental movement, the beach really is full.
"We are far from waiting for a relaxation of the rules," says Bart Vanwildemeersch of the West Flanders Environmental Federation (WMF). "Any relaxation is a weakening of what is already weak. Beach clubs and bars want to expand their concessions and pave more. The pressure for additional year-round recreation is enormous on Belgium's beaches. But many of those beach clubs and bars are in or adjacent to transitional areas. In fact, that is already an incision on nature, but there is hardly any enforcement."
In Knokke-Heist, beach bar owners pioneered the sale of drinks with the rental of their booths, chairs and umbrellas in the late 1990s. The recipe proved successful: meanwhile, more than seventy beach bars are open, spread over nine of the ten coastal municipalities, each with their own private terraces. More than 300,000 square meters of beach and embankment are under concession for all kinds of rentals.
Up to half of the beach in the centers of Belgian seaside towns is commercialized. Scattered along the coastline are more than 10,000 cabins, next to each other every three meters.
Beach tourism is mainly concentrated in the centers of barely 67 kilometers of coastline, on a beach no more than 500 meters wide. Yet only a fifth of that area is "high beach. That is the "dry beach" between high tide line and dike or dune where commercial exploitations are possible.
Discussion of rules
Ten years ago, the provincial spatial implementation plan (PRUP) Beach and Dike detailed for each seaside resort what could and especially could not be done. Spacing rules gave proprietors exceptionally more options during the corona crisis. At a preparatory meeting of the previous Consultation of Coastal Mayors, a semi-annual meeting, the question of additional possibilities on the beach sounded.
This requires an amendment to the PRUP. "Why shouldn't a certain stretch of beach be temporarily occupied in winter," said Blankenberge Mayor Bjorn Prasse (Open Vld). "Some rules, such as certain surface areas within the beach areas, are also not in line with what is workable."
According to Mayor of De Panne Bram Degrieck (The Plan-B), the PRUP was indeed not made for activities in winter. "The time when shopkeepers boarded up windows in winter is long gone. The beach should be at least as attractive in summer as in winter. That's why we support the call for adjustments."
That those regulations are outdated here and there was observed by everyone in practice, Mayor Prasse believes. "But everyone deals with it pragmatically, because there is not only the letter of the law, there is also such a thing as the spirit of the law. Regulations must always be interpreted, both when granting permits and when checking compliance."
An initiative to revise the PRUP does lie with the provincial government. For now, the deputation is holding off. Mayor Prasse thinks a revision would be useful: "All spatial plans have an expiration date. If you see that in practice, with all the best intentions, the rules are not workable, then they need to be tinkered with."
Opportunities maximized
Middelkerke Mayor Jean-Marie Dedecker (LDD) also wants to continue the discussion. "We are going to put the expansion of possibilities for beach bars on the agenda again at the next meeting," Dedecker said. He will become chairman of the Consultation of Coastal Mayors after the summer.
"There are problems with the current rules, in some places you are allowed too much, in other places too little. We just resolved a discussion about a floor on a beach bar. The regulations say that from the seawall you must always be able to see the water line, but it doesn't say whether that has to be high or low tide." Consequence after consultation with the Maritime Services and Coastal Agency: the beach bar with floor may remain.
That there is discussion about the interpretation of the PRUP does not deny even the Maritime Services and Coast Agency (MDK). That owns just about all the beaches and dikes on the coast. "The different interpretations are coordinated bilaterally, but there are no items that have led to contractual disputes over the beach and seawall concession," says spokesman Peter Van Camp.
A key part of the PRUP that is open to interpretation revolves around the 50% rule on "privatized use of the beach" in downtown areas. "Some charge half the area and others see half the length," Van Camp said. "There should also always be a five-meter clear strip between dike and exploitation and the high-water line and exploitation. From spot checks, we see no excesses, but the possibility of exploitation is being maximized."
"We see a lot of beach bars being combined with the operation of a beach park with seat rental, for example. The salvage of that seat rental is very often integrated into one site making the area much larger than 60 m². Such an interpretation is possible because the text of the PRUP is not completely conclusive."
The PRUP does state maximum surface areas, but nowhere how many beach bars are allowed on one stretch of beach. "For us, that's a spatial gap," says Van Camp. "You could theoretically put many more bars on the same surface area."
Gray zone
The Maritime and Coastal Services Agency also sees how the gray zone of regulations is being sought. The city of Ostend goes the furthest in this. The queen of seaside cities considers beach bars as an 'event' and not as a 'consumption area'. The city therefore grants 'event zones' under concession. The Agency appraises the surface of the consumption area as in the other coastal municipalities, but this does raise questions.
In fact, in just about all other municipalities, beach bars must apply for environmental permits. These are then tested against the PRUP. This contains strict rules regarding, among other things, maximum surface areas.
Municipalities and operators can also deviate from the PRUP by making use of the 'exemption decree'. This is a popular deviation option. For temporary constructions - so also on the beach - four times thirty days a year, just about all the rules can be deviated from, except in a vulnerable area or where a municipal RUP prohibits something. "Municipalities are appealing more and more to the exemption decree," says Stephaan Barbery, head of the Spatial Planning department at the province of West Flanders. "The condition is that the destination is restored to its original state afterwards."
Operators of beach, sailing and surf clubs are also asking for more opportunities to build storage areas on the beach. Often those clubs are in the far corners of centers and adjacent to natural areas, making the balancing act even more difficult.
"Some fine-tuning is possible," says Anthony Wittesaele (Gemeentebelangen), alderman in Knokke-Heist. "I'm thinking of some flexibility for certain events, but we shouldn't overdo it, because the carrying capacity is quickly exceeded."
"You used to have a multitude of catering establishments on the dike," Wittesaele states. "Fortunately, the PRUP prohibits restaurants on the beach, but if there is less hospitality on the dike, maybe that function should be able to be taken over by beach entrepreneurs."
"It's a balancing act, but if we grant new concessions, maybe we should also consider who has a business on the dike. That combination makes for greater livability. Don't forget that beach operations involve a great entrepreneurial risk, because you are at the mercy of the natural elements."
At the end of 2026 in Knokke-Heist, the current concessions will end and all lots will be reopened to anyone who wants to do business. "If you make a public asset available for economic exploitation, then everyone should have the same opportunities. That will not be obvious, because entrepreneurs have been operating here for four generations."
Still, the city council can impose all kinds of conditions in its specifications to give direction to whoever it wants on its beaches. "We don't want Disney or Coca-Cola beaches here," says alderman Wittesaele. "We want to maintain quality and experience, and those can be criteria as well."