The farming couple Styrkaar and Inger Marie Ringheim-Hustveit are fighting to protect their land. On the steep infield, the spring sun is about to melt away the snow. The municipal council has now decided to build a new road to Voss Resort Bavallen. It will cross up over the bends of four farms and connect on the current road to the cabin and alpine complex further up. The traffic to the alpine resort and the cabins in Bavallen today goes on a congested rural road up from the E16. Now the municipality wants to build a new and more traffic-safe road. The county municipality will pay half. The road crosses the infield to four yards – across the municipality’s climate plan and national goals for soil conservation. Visualization: Anders Nøkling – It is a very nice cultural landscape with the mountains in the background. We are very proud of these old, traditional guards. We feel something is being destroyed by building such a brutal road, she says. Money from the county Councilor in Voss, Arild Steine thinks it is not wise to look for alternative solutions now. For Vestland county council, the promise is to pay half, i.e. NOK 40 million. – The decision in the county applies no. If we delayed the process, the decade could pass quickly. Mayor Hans-Erik Ringkjøb (Ap) agrees. – The window is now open for the county to participate in the financing. If I don’t get it in place now, I’ll have to wait a long time. Styrkaar Ringheim-Hustveit believes the county politicians must reconsider whether they want to destroy cultivated land with their road money. – Indirectly, they are pushing this plan forward, when one should instead take the time to think again, he believes. In the cultural landscape just outside the center of Voss, a new road to the Voss Resort will be built at an angle from left to right in the picture. Photo: Leif Rune Løland / news Has lost 110,000 acres Since 2012, Norway has lost 110,000 acres of cultivated or arable land. Most of it will be converted into housing estates, roads or industrial areas. The couple at Ringheim garden refers to national guidelines on reducing the loss of cultivated land. – Building a road across four yards violates clear government goals on soil conservation. The road is also in conflict with the climate and area plan that the politicians in Voss adopted last autumn, he says. A total of 14 acres of fully cultivated infield will disappear under the new road. The farmers believe that the same amount of land will be impractical and difficult to farm because the road will split up the farms. – It will be a patchwork with high cuts above and below the road, he says. A new road to Bavallen is planned from the roundabout in the background and at an angle up the steep bends. Photo: Leif Rune Løland / news The country is losing arable land In the period 2012-2022, more than 110,600 acres of Norway have been reallocated to purposes other than agriculture. Approximately 53,600 acres of cultivated land and 56,900 acres of arable land thus disappeared in eleven years. 33 percent of the cultivated land became residential area, 27 percent became traffic area and 17 percent business area. This is shown by figures from Statistics Norway. Around three percent of the country is cultivated land: about 10 million acres. Since 1945, at least 1.2 million acres of cultivated and arable land have been reallocated. In the last 50 years, 75 percent of all Norwegian conservancies have been closed down. On the other hand, there is also a lot of new cultivation. New cabins require a new road Øyvind Wæhle is the day-to-day manager of Voss Resort in Bavallen. He will not be allowed to build the last 250 cabins the zoning plan from 2013 opens because construction of the road will not start this year. – All development close to the center in a village like Voss will, of course, often have implications for soil conservation. Wæhle disagrees that it is the cabin field that is pushing forward the need for the road over the bows. – It will be a combination of a road to the ski resort and an important road for local people due to a huge development of schools, businesses and shops. Day-to-day manager Øyvind Wæhle of Voss Resort denies that the case concerns “cottage development versus soil conservation”. Photo: Leif Rune Løland / news Safe road Mayor Ringkjøb is part of the majority which, a few months after the climate and area plan, has now decided to build the new Bavallsvegen. – It is a difficult issue, where we as local politicians are somewhat in the crossfire. He admits that the road is being developed based on a ten-year-old zoning plan that is in conflict with the recent climate plan for Voss. – There is a conflict between those plans, so we meet ourselves at the door. We cannot escape conflicts to get a new road to Bavallen in place. This is not about soil conservation or not. A great deal of care is required, and it is very important that people travel safely, says Ringkjøb. The mayor says that many options have been explored to find the most gentle. Today’s road is heavily trafficked and too unsafe, Voss believes here. Photo: Leif Rune Løland / news – They may have thought it was gentle in 2013, but the reality has changed. I think there are solutions that have not yet been assessed, says Ringheim Hustveit. But expanding today’s road is, among other things, difficult due to ancient history. For example, there is a burial mound on the side of the road directly below his garden. – A new planning process is needed to find a new solution, he says. – Taking the best soil Bjørnar Nedkvitne in Voss Bondelag is concerned about the future of agriculture in his village. – It’s scary how they walk in the terrain now. They often build down the finest soil, where it is easiest to build a road. He recalls an old saying: “A house must stand where the plow cannot go.” – Both houses and roads must be built in the pile of stones, not out on the ground, he believes. Although the Center Party is part of the majority cooperation in Voss, local politician Endre Evensen recently voted against the road. He is also a member of the Voss farmers’ and small farmers’ association. – It goes against the guidelines I have introduced with the climate plan and land use. So this is a real derailment from our new way of thinking, he believes. Mads Stavrum (from left) and Bjørnar Nedkvitne in Voss Farmers’ Association, farmers Inger Marie and Styrkaar Ringheim Hustveit, and Endre Evensen in the Center Party and Voss Farmers’ and Small Farmers’ Association. Photo: Leif Rune Løland / news The deputy mayor: – The municipality’s responsibility Vestland county municipality will, according to a letter to Voss, try to find replacement land for the cultivated land that has to give way to the road. But if the municipality chooses to go ahead with another traséval, it will most likely require a new zoning plan. – Then we cannot guarantee what funding the politicians will prioritize after the election, says county deputy mayor Natalia Golis (MDG). This is how she responds to the criticism that the license from Vestland county is pushing forward the road construction now. – Although the county contributes money and will be responsible for the construction of the county road, it is the municipality that regulates and decides the route. She believes it is possible for the municipality to environmentally revise the regulation plan with new knowledge. – Care to protect topsoil has come a lot further since 2013. But I have great understanding when the mayor of Voss says the situation is difficult.
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Fighting against cottage road across the infield to four yards – news Vestland
