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Ghent-Terneuzen
The regional development of Ghent-Terneuzen is a case study that comprises five large
developments. First, at the local level but across municipal borders activities such as
environmental protection, extension of business premises and housing are intensified. Second,
after long discussion the Westerscheldt Tunnel was realised. Third, there are developments in
water management. Fourth, broad strategies are formulated for the development of the South-
West of the Netherlands and the West of Flanders. Fifth, the knowledge infrastructure of the
Ghent-Terneuzen region is consolidated.
Some of the developments in the region can be mentioned here. During 1989-2002,
local public and private actors worked on issues of environmental hazards, expansion of business
premises and habitation in the Ghent-Terneuzen canal zone. This took place in a Dutch and a
Flemish ‘ROM’ project. Authorities at higher scale levels supported both the Dutch and Flemish
project. The project first ran on the Dutch side. Actors on the Flemish side took inspiration from
the Dutch but adapted the project to their own priorities. Other developments in which
municipalities and provinces feature are the development of Zeeland and Flemish ports and the
trans-national programme managed by the euroregion. National authorities (finance and)
dominate three other issues. Those issues are the nautical access to Antwerp and Ghent, the
Scheldt water quality and the infrastructure related to the Westerscheldt Tunnel. Bilateral
discussion on these issues is tied to (and held up by) other bilateral issues, such as the high-speed
train.
The case study shows that public administration initiates some isolated opportunities for
participation in policy-making. Citizens and business hardly seized such opportunities, certainly
not at the regional level of scale. Some corporatist arrangements were added to representative
democracy: representatives of industry, agriculture, fisheries and ecology are involved in policymaking.
It is observed that governance networks do not reach out much, which makes it likely
that not all possibilities to mitigate tensions between spatial and transport networks are tried. In
the case, these tensions appear as conflicts between maritime-industrial economics and estuary
ecology. Governance networks such as the ROM projects do facilitate sound development. Even
if in sparsely populated Zeeland the circumstances for public-private partnership to realise road
infrastructure are not ideal, more trust originating from cooperative governance would stimulate
innovation capable of defusing the conflict between economics and ecology. Such innovation may
be related to the transformation into post-industrial economics, it might also consist of improving
logistics. Logistic improvement requires a joint effort of port and other transport companies. A
logistic chain within the maritime-industrial cluster could be an aim for cooperative governance
and a stronger governance network. It would be fatal to such development if national government
would hinder regional action.
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