residents association -working parties

contact person:

Mr. M. van Faassen
Laan Copes van Cattenburch 44
T 331 7210
E martijn@archipelbuurt.nl

Free graffiti removal from your property too?

This will shortly be possible!

The board of the Archipel & Willemspark (A&W) Residents Association has closed a contract with The Hague Municipal Council for the collective removal of illegal graffiti and posters in our district. Costs for this clean-up arrangement will be covered by A&W.

Owners and tenants granting permission for the clean-up service automatically become part of the collective arrangement. Those who have already signed up for graffiti removal will from now on receive the service free of charge. ( See earlier article.)

What does A&W do?

After the summer holidays we will provide you with more details and collect your authorization forms. If you become a participant we will arrange for your property to be cleaned by a professional and certified cleaning company free of charge. Once a month the company will inspect all properties registered with the scheme for any new defacement. This saves you from having to contact A&W or the cleaning company.

What do you do?

Just wait for further notification from us. All the necessary authorization and registration forms and the terms and conditions will be posted on the A&W website. All information can also be requested in writing (and collected) from the A&W secretariat in the Klokhuis Community Centre in Celebesstraat. Just complete, sign and return the authorization form and you become part of the collective clean-up arrangement.

July 2010, Archipel & Willemspark Residents Association

Burendag / Neighbours Day 2010

“A good Idea for the neighbourhood”

The Oranje Fonds has a pot of two million euros to sponsor social initiatives in your neighbourhood. Have you got an idea like brightening up your street with plant containers or a clean-up campaign. Or would a community breakfast or film festival in your community centre be more to your taste? There is a maximum of €500 per idea. Whatever your idea be quick: first come first served: www.burendag.nl

 and funding

Het Buurt / The Neighbourhood Brainstorm Team can help you get started!
Burendag begins with a good idea for the neighbourhood. The special Buurt Brainstorm Team travels throughout the country giving expert advice on implementing ideas. In your Community Centre perhaps (check with t’ Klokhuis if this is possible)? Get in touch with the Team and see if they can fit in a visit.

Sustainable motoring

Car-sharing proves a successful alternative

11 May 2010 - Because of the demand for sustainable motoring in The Hague, 23 extra ”autodateplekken" have been installed bringing the total in the city to 91. The one in Batjanstraat (17) will boost the number of “plekken” in the Archipelbuurt to four: Bonistraat 15, Balistraat 2, Surinamestraat 60 and Batjanstraat 17.

Currently there are 1,750 Green Wheels participants and the municipal council hopes that there will soon be 2,000 … any more takers from our neighbourhood?

More information:

www.denhaag.nl & www.greenwheels.nl

Connection between the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen and Archipel & Willemspark

21 January 2010 – During the most recent A&W Residents Association's Community Council meeting, a fellow resident, Graham Degens, elaborated on this connection

We’ve all heard Copenhagen mentioned repeatedly in recent months. What conclusions were reached at the Summit and what are the consequences for us and The Hague? How much do we as individuals affect the environment? Why is this important? What can we do as individuals and as a community to reduce our ecological footprint? To be continued ...

and a brief discussion followed.

After the discussion a number of local residents offered to pursue this topic further with Graham with a view to doing something in our community on this front. If you are also interested please contact the A&W Residents Association at secretariaat@archipelbuurt.nl

Download text of Graham Degens' introduction.

In the meantime see what they have been doing in Deventer

More information on the Transition Towns concept

Trial to tackle the seagull problem starts 15 April 2010

The Hague municipal council is launching a trial in mid-April to reduce the problems caused by seagulls: namely, the noise, the ripped open bags of rubbish and the mess from their droppings. The nuisance cannot be completely eradicated but some of the measures will help.

As of 15 April inhabitants of The Hague can report problems caused by nesting seagulls. As part of the trial, instances reported by residents in Scheveningen, Escamp, Centrum and Haagse Hout will be dealt with by replacing the eggs – if the nests are accessible – with dummy eggs. This will hopefully reduce the nuisance caused as the birds will continue brooding the nest until it is too late to lay another clutch and the associated aggressive behaviour will subside.

Safety – Because the substitution of the eggs must be carried out carefully and with consideration for the welfare of the birds, the council has engaged the services of a specialist company with all the necessary equipment and expertise. The ministry of Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality has granted an exemption from the Flora- en Faunawet (Wildlife and Countryside Act) in order to make the trial possible.

All reports are of value – The results from the trial in Scheveningen, Escamp, Centrum and Haagse Hout will be compared with reports received from other city districts in order to monitor the effectiveness of the measures taken. It is therefore important that inhabitants in the districts where no action is currently being taken also report any problems they are experiencing. The trial will be evaluated at the end of the summer.

Set of measures – The substitution of dummy eggs is part of a wider set of measures to tackle the nuisance caused by seagulls. The most important of these is to limit the amount of food available to the gulls. This is in great part down to the city’s citizens who can assume personal responsibility by not putting their rubbish bags out on the street any earlier than is really necessary: wait till 07.30 on the morning the refuge is to be collected. The less time the bags are on the streets the less chance the gulls and other animals will have to tear open the bags. Putting out food for birds and animals should also be curtailed once the winter is over.

Extra measures to combat the seagull problem

The Municipality of The Hague is to take extra measures next year to deal with the nuisance caused by seagulls. Profiting from lessons learned by the neighbouring city of Leiden, the Council will be making use of dummy eggs to fool the birds: they spend so long trying to hatch them that they have no time for a second brood.

Leiden has also had some success with a new kind of dustbin bag. These are not only made of stronger material, but are yellow - a colour apparently seagulls do not like. The city will also be installing a resident falconer, as soon as the Ministry of Agriculture gives permission.

November 2009

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Living near the sea has its problems

The Hague is close to the sea. You can tell by the bracing air and the seagulls. Something that many visitors to the city greatly appreciate.

But not everyone appreciates the herring gull (or the black-backed gull): all that screeching, scavenging and the droppings. Residents of Archipel & Willemspark too, complain about the noise and the mess. Yet the so-called gull problem is primarily man-made. The inhabitants of The Hague make their streets so inviting to the gulls: bread in the parks, litter on the streets, rubbish bags put out too early. It is all too easy to give these beautiful birds the blame; they are only following their instincts: finding food and taking care of their young. By reducing the amount of food left in public places, you reduce the number of gulls!

FB - August 2009

Keeping the

city clean

together

New campaign to clean up The Hague

With the ‘Den Haag Schoon!’ campaign the Municipality of The Hague aims to make the city much cleaner by 2010. The extensive campaign will provide residents with information about how everyone can contribute to a cleaner city. For example, by putting out rubbish in the proper way, separating waste and keeping litter off our streets.

The municipality wants to make residents more aware of their influence on a cleaner city and will be called upon to actively contribute to ‘Den Haag Schoon!’ Extra attention will be paid to existing initiatives but there will also be room for new ideas and initiatives. You can submit you ideas via the Dutch-language municipal website. More ...

Brainstorm and participate in the working party Public Space

When Dorien de Buck approached me to take over the chairmanship of the working party ‘Public Space’, it already has a number of successes to its name.

In the Surinamestraat the proliferation of rogue posts has been stopped. An information evening was organized for those living around the Deliplantsoen to discuss the accommodation of dogs and playing children. Also the plans to return the Nassauplein to its former glory are beginning to take shape. The working party functions too as a go-between for the community committee with the municipality. These are just a few examples.

Given all the plans this working party still wants realise, it was no indulgence to ask for reinforcements. The couple of months I have now been involved in the working party, has transformed me from an innocent passerby to an alert local resident.

“Perhaps the pavement could be widened here?”, “Couldn’t we do with more bicycle racks here?” “Request some more of those litterbins, the  model that can be attached to  lampposts”. And so on.

“Banka Project”

The biggest project the working party is involved in at this moment is the Bankastraat.  Concrete, rapid changes  the working party is currently keeping an eye on, are the plans concerning the extension of the Albert Heijn. We are involved in close

consultation with the supermarket management to that ensure that the immediate surroundings are not detrimentally affected.

Something less immediate, but nonetheless important, is the further development of improvements to the Bankastraat. There is still a long way to go. If it is were up to us, it will become a street - along which buses drive at an acceptable speed - where you can choose on which cafe terrace you sit, where different trees grow and shrubs will bloom, where there is somewhere to park your bike and where it is a nice place to be.

If you are interested and have time to become involved, then do please get in touch.

Josien Deknatel:  06-55 88.56.18,