Antwerp port representatives last week snubbed the annual Zeeland oyster festival in protest at the Dutch government’s failure to meet its obligation in dredging the Westerschelde ocean approaches. Antwerp’s port affairs alderman Marc Van Peel, however, was present to give a speech. Antwerp’s Sterckshof Silver Museum closed last week for renovations which are expected to last three years. The museum is housed in a neo-Gothic castle in the Rivierenhof park in Deurne. The work will cost €8.5 million. 

Police in Ostend last week initiated extra patrols following the break-up of a migrants’ camp in Calais, during which 300 people were detained. The foreigners’ office and local police now fear that the migrants will move to Ostend in the hope of crossing the channel to Britain.

Journalists’ representatives last week accused the courts of “pure censorship” after the court of first instance in Antwerp prohibited the publication of an issue of TV Familie magazine containing an article on the Pfaff family of TV celebrities. Banning an article prior to publication is practically unheard of in Belgium, where it is considered in breach of Article 25 of the constitution. Normally the courts only consider cases after publication of the offending article. The journalists’ union said the ruling was “a dangerous precedent”.

Members of the Citizens’ Commission on Human Rights demonstrated outside the Catholic University of Leuven’s Sint- Jozef psychiatric institution last week in protest at the excessive use of medication to treat psychiatric illnesses. The group accuses doctors of over-prescribing Ritalin, anti-depressants and antipsychotics, as well as using electro- shock therapy. But the clinic’s director defended the treatment. “Each patient is thoroughly screened and receives the treatment they need,” she said.

Police in the Pajottenland area of Flemish Brabant are hunting a gang of livestock thieves who have stolen four sheep and five cows from fields in Asse, Lennik, Herne and Pepingen in recent weeks. An adult sheep is worth about €100 and a cow in the region of €2,000, a spokesperson for the Farmers’ Union said.

One in three Flemish architects is considering leaving the profession as a result of the burden of administrative procedures, according to the professional federation NAV. The federation polled 300 of its 2,100 members and found 80% who listed administrative procedures as “serious or very serious”. Of those, more than 36% were weighing the possibility of quitting. According to those polled, roughly one half of an architect’s work involves administration and ensuring projects meet the many applicable rules and regulations. Last week, Flemish architects decided to leave the national order and set up an independent order of Flemish architects.