After the church bells, the cockerel is a lighthouse that disturbs new arrivals.

A famous lighthouse in Ostend, Belgium, is to be restored to its former glory after the residents of a nearby luxury apartment block lost their court case to have its beam attenuated.

The developer of the new apartments, the Versluys Group, lobbied the Belgian maritime agency to block the beam from the Lange Nelle lighthouse, after residents – many from outside Ostend – said the light disturbed their sleep as it passed through their rooms at night.

The agency then decided to install an aluminium blind to cover the part of the beam that shone into the apartments. However, this decision sparked indignation among many residents of the seaside town.

Lange Nelle is a listed building that has shone at night for 74 years in Ostend, a town popular with the British.

A petition set up to dim the lighthouse light

A local petition entitled “Who came first: the lighthouse or the luxury apartments? Or didn’t they see the lighthouse?” garnered over 10,000 signatures.

Ostend’s Lange Nelle lighthouse will be restored to its former glory as soon as possible, according to the Minister for Heritage.
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• Flandersnews.be (@flandersnews) February 3, 2023
  Local media outlet VRT News reports that Flemish Heritage Minister Mathias Diependaele has said that the awning will be removed “as quickly as possible”, as negative reactions to the decision outweighed initial complaints.

He also points out that people living near the lighthouse knew it was there when they bought their apartment.

The mayor of Ostend, Bart Tommelein, also called for the awning to be removed.

Similar resistance developed in the Dutch city of Rotterdam last year, after plans were revealed to dismantle a historic bridge to allow the passage of Jeff Bezos’ superyacht.

After the threat of crowds throwing eggs en masse at Bezos’ ship, another solution has been found.