War monument removed

n Doel, a municipality of Beveren, a monument to British troops who helped defend the port of Antwerp during the Second World War has been dismantled and moved to an undisclosed location on the orders of the mayor of Beveren. The town council of Beveren intends to erect the monument at another place,
despite more than 1,700 signatures on a petition asking that it stay where it has stood since 1948.

The reason for the move is that the future of Doel is uncertain. The town, already largely abandoned, is scheduled to disappear under a plan to expand the left bank of the Port of Antwerp. That has been resisted
by a group of residents and activists, and a court recently ordered a stop to the demolition of empty houses. The organisers of the petition, calling themselves the Committee for the Protection of the British Monument, last week called on heritage minister Geert Bourgeois to issue a protection order for the monument.

(March 30, 2011)