Residents demand answers over ammunition factory safety

Neighbours of a planned ammunition factory in Elling say they are still worried about their safety and have too few answers after a meeting with the Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organisation, DR reports. Around 140 people attended the meeting at a cinema in Frederikshavn.

The closest neighbours live within the factory’s safety zone. They had hoped to learn what restrictions would apply to their properties and whether they could feel safe. The factory is known locally as Krudten.

“When I asked whether we could feel safe, the answer was that safety is a feeling. But this is our life. We have to live here, and we cannot get away,” said Pernille Søs Mathisen, who lives 450 metres from the factory with her husband and two children.

Residents had been told that restrictions would be placed on properties in the zone, where safety rules bar kindergartens, schools, community centres, hospitals and high-rise buildings. But after a 10-month wait, they were told that registered property restrictions, known as servitudes, would not be imposed after all.

“Now we cannot even look forward to compensation so we can move on, because expropriation is completely out of the picture,” said Tina Bendtsen, who lives inside the zone. She said her family had spent its savings renovating their home and could not afford to buy another one.

Leif Boje Thomsen said he left the meeting more confused and worried. He was concerned by information that, in theory, windows and doors in nearby homes could be blown in. He said his floor-to-ceiling windows face the factory and that he feared for his life if such damage occurred.

Tony Lenda, who lives just under 300 metres from the factory, said he had not received answers to concerns about being unable to leave the area and about safety risks. “My blood is boiling,” he said, adding that he was frustrated by what he saw as ordinary people being pushed aside.

Per Pugholm Olsen, director of the Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organisation, opened the meeting with an apology, saying residents had not been adequately informed. He said he understood their dissatisfaction after officials had first said one thing and then another. Olsen said the decision not to impose servitudes was not an attempt to avoid expropriation, but reflected a lack of legal grounds to impose them. He said more public meetings would be held.

Bendtsen and Mathisen said they hoped for a financial arrangement that would allow them to move. The factory is expected to be completed in about six months. Nammo Danmark A/S will then install production equipment, with ammunition production expected to begin in about a year.