The dramatic collapse of the motorway bridge in Genoa has awakened concern over the state of road bridges in the Netherlands, the Financieele Dagblad said on Thursday. Transport sector lobby group TLN said it is worried about road bridges maintained by local and provincial authorities but less so about those overseen by national transport authority Rijkswaterstaat, ‘We are reminding those involved of the necessity of building up reserves for the maintenance and renovation of bridges,’ said a TNL spokesman. Noting the poor maintenance of several high-traffic bridges, Rob Nijsse of Delft University said ‘we cannot rule out a disaster such as that in northern Italy taking place in the Netherlands.’ In the spring, various media reported about serious problems with the maintenance of scores of bridges and viaducts in Noord-Holland province alone. There were 14 instances of 'an unacceptable risk of collapse', the FD said. Europe The infrastructure in the rest of Europe is also a cause for concern for TLN. 'Key tunnels and bridges on motorways all over Europe were built in the 1960s and 1970s and have reached the limits of their technical lifetime,' the spokesman said. In Germany, for example, many bridges on major international routes have been closed to truck traffic on a regular basis. 'The situation in the Netherlands is a bit better than in the rest of Europe,' the TNL spokesman said.   More >

Officials in Nijmegen were right to refuse to allow a woman to use a passport photograph in which she is wearing a colander on her head, the Council of State ruled on Wednesday. Pastafarianism is not a religion and therefore practitioners cannot wear kitchen equipment in official photographs, the council said. The case was brought by Nijmegen woman Mienke de Wilde who is a member of the ‘Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster’.  She claims the refusal to allow her to wear the colander conflicts with the right to freedom of religion. Pastafarianism was developed in the US as a light-hearted alternative to traditional religion and has supporters all over the world. De Wilde is now considering taking her case to the European Court of Human Rights, saying that Pastafarianism is recognised in some other EU countries. Her story and that of several other Pastafarians is the subject of a documentary film currently being put together by an American expat in the Netherlands.  More >

A German couple who tied up and beat their eight-year-old son and locked him in a chest at night have been jailed for three years by a Dutch court. The incidents took place on a campsite in Winterswijk in July 2017 and came to light after another camper spotted the naked boy, named Jayden, looking for food. He told the man he was looking for new parents because his own wanted to lock him up. The couple and two other children were found by police in a caravan on the campsite and the parents. They had told people they were living on the campsite while their house was being built. It later transpired the couple had earlier convictions for child abuse. The three children are now living with foster parents.   More >

Amsterdam’s water board is considering using smell dispensers to try to keep deer in the dune area west of the city from crossing roads and going into gardens, the Parool reported on Tuesday. The paper said officials have approached a company in Rosmalen which makes giant smell dispenser, similar to household air fresheners, to ward off animals. But rather than lavender or lilies, the Rail Road Systems machines emit the small of lion manure and fire. It stinks like an ashtray which has been left out in the rain for three days, spokesman Patrick Steiiger told the paper. The posts have already been placed along a few stretches of railway to keep rabbits, foxes and wild boar away, and the project has been successful, Steijger said. The water board ran trials using a different sort of smell dispenser last year but the deer were not impressed. Now a new system has been developed, prompting officials to look again, the paper said. The key ingredient is known as tupoleum which was made by a German chemist who developed it to keep deer away from Christmas trees when they were being grown. Even though Dutch dune deer have never met a lion, fear of the smell is deep-rooted, VU University professor Nico van Staalen told the Parool. ‘All animals fear preditors and fire,’ he said. ‘Even if they smell them for the first time, the message is ‘get out of here’.’  More >