Today, the Dutch Council of State (Afdeling Bestuursrechtspraak van de Raad van State; the court of final instance in administrative matters) quashed the administrative decisions allowing the development of Brouwerseiland. Brouwerseiland is a real estate project which envisages the construction of over 300 vacation homes on artificial islands near the Brouwersdam. According to the Council of State, insufficient research was conduted into the resting areas of the seals near the Brouwersdam. The supply of sand which is needed for the construction of the islands may also have consequences for the seals in the bioreserve Voordelta. Furthermore, the consequences of the plans for birds such as the brede (fuut), cormorant (aalscholver) and little egret (kleine zilverreiger) were not adequately assessed.
You can find the full judgment (in Dutch) here. For the press release (in Dutch) click here.
The case was brought by inter alia Natuurmonumenten, de Zeeuwse Milieufederatie en Milieufederatie Zuid-Holland. Acting lawyers were Marieke van Eik and Jan-Eelco Dijk.