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1 Canal Area Roeselare-Ooigem (Belgium) Thursday 10th October 2013

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Page 1: Pieter bekaert west vlaanderen

1

Canal Area Roeselare-Ooigem (Belgium)

Thursday 10th October 2013

Page 2: Pieter bekaert west vlaanderen

Canal Area ?

Canal area Roeselare-Ooigem=

2 cities & 3 municipalities:

• Roeselare• Izegem• Ingelmunster• Oostrozebeke• Wielsbeke

Around 110.000 inhabitants

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Area Programme canal zone

Exists since 2005

Received (co-)funding from Europe (Canal Link, Waterways for Growth, FunctioneelGroen, …)

What: Integrated (many policy domains) cooperation project, coordinated by the Province of

West-Flanders (Belgium) Coordinated does not mean ‘lead by the Province of West-Flanders’ (bottom-up

project)

Mission: “To strengthen the canal zone and make all of its functions more attractive through cooperation with many (relevant) partners.”

11 structural partners, a lot more (public & private) partners for specific projects

• Underlying goal: to create a ‘canal area identity’ (community building)People drive along the canal everyday, but are so used to it that they don’t really see it anymore. People also don’t realize enough how much there is to see and experience in their own region. Nobody knows (knew?) what impact the canal had (and has) on the development of our region.

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Canal Roeselare-Leie

16,5 km. long (canal ends in Roeselare)

Very multifunctional: mainly economical function but there is also room for tourism, recreation, nature, …

Important part of the local ‘green and blue network’ (largest waterway of the area)

Connected to the Leie river (connection with France)

~ 3,5 million tonnes (1000 kg.) per year

Studies are ongoing to make the canal more accessible for larger ships (part of the larger Seine-Schelde project)

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Canal Roeselare-Leie

Quite a lot economical dynamism along the canal

Recently built large (strategic) fuel depot (175 million liters of fuel)

Lots of (concentrated) industry along the canal + quite a lot of new industry being created right now and in the near future. Most enterprises along the canal use it to transport goods.

Plans to develop a multimodal logistic platform (inland terminal)

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2010 – 2012

=

2 strategic goals

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1. To develop a coherent action plan for the (multifunctional) future of the canal zone.

2. To develop an attractive anniversary programme for the 150th anniversary of the canal Roeselare-Leie (2012).

Two Goals

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First goal

To develop an action programme with actions concerning:

Economy (logistic cooperation, cooperation between enterprises for specific services, strengthening social economy, etc.)

Mobility (towpath improval, better connection between canal and Leie river, …)

Tourism/Recreation (action plan, based on the event programme 150 years canal)

Spatial Quality (lots of local projects to improve the attractiveness of the canal zone: town centre renewal, new small parks, reopening old or creating new roads for cyclists/pedestrians, …)

Nature & environment (a more ‘green’ canal area)

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Second Goal

What: To develop an attractive anniversary programme for 2012 (150th anniversary canal Roeselare-Leie)

Why: 1862 = the year in which the canal project got approved bythe Belgian government and parliament (far from easy to get thisproject approved!!)

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(Sub)Goals

Not just ‘partying’, but:

Taking a look at the past what impact had the canal on the demographic, economical, landscape, … development of this region (quite a big one!)

Creating a new / improving our regional identity: the canal zone as attractive future oriented region. This instead of a grey and boring region.

Presenting the high amount of economical dynamism and the industrial character of the canal area as an asset.

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Event Programme

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Importance of communication

Totally new story and events: really important

211 press articles, some bought, most of them not!

People liked the theme, a lot of spontaneous communication initiatives (for example: ten weeks of interviews in the largest regional newspaper)

159 days between first and last event: 1,3 articles a day!

Lots of communication products: 146.000 specific newspapers

dozens of articles in regional newspapers

more than 20.000 flyers

event flags in every city

more than 500 posters

more than 4500 brochures for the art project

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Website became a large succes! Lots of visitors (more than 100.000, 60.000 unique ones), almost everyday around 100 visitors with peaks around 1000 (close to big events)

Communication campaign received lots of support from the partners Logo on all the partners websites and own brochures

Lots of website visitors which got the link from the partners websites

All the partners did an extra effort to develop own communication products (extra brochures, posters, flyers, flags, …)

Importance of communication

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Activities

Extensive programme: more than 50 activities in the period April to October2012

Important: all the activities had quite a lot of visitors (altough 2012 had reallylousy summer weather, cf. beach)

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Beach along the canal

Open air cinema

Of course: lots of activities on the water (not always easy considering traffic)

Events everywhere

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A submarine along the canal

Proms @ The Port

Activities

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Historic boat parade

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Water fun on the canal

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Even vikings!

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Art project

Was only possible because of the very enthusiastic

participation of enterprises (and their

personnel)

Some of the art works are there forever (or at least for a lot of years…)

Nick Ervinck

Renato Nicolodi

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Relation with G&B futures

Project was used for creating/strengthening a regional identity and for community building

Good example of (necessary) cooperation between a lot of public and a lot of (semi-)private partners. This brings specific challenges (goals, financial, …).

Lots of activities means lots of practical work (organization, security, building up lots of things, clean-up afterwards, …). This means that lots of people were needed! For all the activities, we (and the other partners) insisted to work together with volunteers or the social economy when support was needed.

This was a clear choice from the beginning.

Everything was for free, to ensure that everybody could participate

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Findings Nobody knew if the ‘canal’ was a topic that would work. We hoped it

would, but could not be sure. We were very pleasantly suprised that, next to our ‘own’ programme, dozens of extra activities were spontaneously organized: guided tours for cyclists and pedestrians, extra art projects, boat trips, teambuilding activities, educational visits, …

For example: all the art schools/music schools worked together to create a cultural centre on the water for 4 months.

Important conclusion: there is certainly a market for canal activities, even after the anniversary year! Small remark: you need someone to keep the project alive (Province willing to play this role)

Some activities came back spontaneously (sport activities, …), new activities were created (pop up restaurant this year)

Second important conclusion: large enthusiasm from the enterprises along the canal to participate, even in times of economical crisis…

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Conclusions

All activities contributed to the creation or promotion of a specific canal identity (community building). It also made people aware that there is more to see and experience in their own region than one would think.

Future goal (and largest challenge): make the cooperation (and the activities) more structural, to keep the project (and regional identity) alive