OPEN LETTER

Buurtcomité Havenstraat
To: the bursar of the British School of Amsterdam
Havenstraat 6
Amsterdam


Dear Sir,

Now that the schoolyear is well on its way, we assume that your inbox has again been pretty much overflowing with neighbours’ reports and complaints. This should hardly be surprising.

The problems regarding the chaotic traffic situation and noise from the school are deepening instead of getting solved. In the meantime the unseen and unbridled assassin, air pollution, is silently wreaking further havoc.

AT5 Television News reported earlier about the chaos during the morning rush hour and the din on the Early Years playground. This ticks up a notch in the afternoon. We hear about more and more neighbours who are getting rather fed up with this BSA. We are also inclining towards that sentiment. Voices are being raised in favor of more radical actions.

We are experiencing that underneath the surface of civility and retorical bromides there lurks a rigid BSA. We are tired of platitudes like ‘we understand what you are saying’, ‘we are in discussions about this’, ‘we are very busy at the moment’, and ‘come and visit us for a cup of coffee’.

We are observing playing hours and noise levels which are completely disproportionate relative to what was agreed upon and as was stated in the theoretical research. There should be a process about the additional noise reduction measures which were ordered by the primary relief judge, but who knows? There hasn’t been any announcement of the yet to be set up practical sound research either.

Parking in the area is still haphasard, and cars are being parked for too long. The official traffic plan assumes an increase in the number of motorcar movements that is totally unconnected with reality. Strangely enough, no one has taken into account the fact that enterprises should be accessible at all times. In our view, a judicial perspective is beginning to unfold.

We feel quite uneasy at the news that the traffic assistants who are indispensible in preventing accidents could be gone by New Year. Rumors about the BSA moving to bill the taxpayer for an adequate provision are unacceptable but not surprising.

We hear that parents of pupils are beginning to ask questions about what is going on. Why they are getting jammed in stinking traffic in the ajacent streets, why they should get fined, and why it has got so risky to send their children onto the Haarlemmermeercircuit. Why are they being accosted by irritated neighbours of the school?

How could it be that in November 2018 they were treated to this idyllic picture of a Havenstraat without any cars or tramrails and hardly any fence, on the cover of the ‘Definitive Design?’ The design also describes an Early Years playground with a ‘dune’, a ‘forest’ and picknick tables, in sharp contrast to the rubber tiles and the ‘logistics zone’ with rubbish containers, bikeracks and parked vans behind a fence as is now the case.

They too are confronted by a school management unable to offer meaningful solutions, simply because with this school on this location there has never been any room for flexibility in the first place. Neighbours have warned about this time after time, but the municipality and BSA management persisted in painting a far too rosy picture. And now we are all stuck in a depressing situation.

It is because of this that the Buurtcomité Havenstraat is considering to undertake renewed judicial action. The yawning gulf between what has been dangled before neighbours and BSA parents, and the deplorable mess we find ourselves in now, is such a clear example of managerial incompetence, opportune, wishfull thinking and cynicism, that another judicial procedure to enforce measures would be entirely appropriate.

There is also an important role reserved for the news media to expose it al lto the public and to interpret the whole sorry saga, so that lessons can be learned and chances for repetition can be diminished. We are not holding our breath.

Kind regards,
Buurtcomité Havenstraat