Hasselt Ikea draws crowds but complaints from neighbours

Residents living near the site of the new Ikea store in Hasselt, now Belgium’s largest Ikea outlet, have complained about traffic chaos on the first weekend of the store’s opening. A stalled vehicle on Saturday caused a major tailback, which police solved by removing a barrier put in place to protect local residents from Ikea-bound traffic.

The barrier prevents traffic – other than local residents and buses – from using the Witte Wijk residential area as a short-cut to the Prins-Bisschopssingel ring road, giving access to the store. “We were worried about a tailback, so we opened the barrier,” said a spokesperson for Hasselt police.

“They guaranteed that that would never happen,” said a local resident. “They lied to us.”

“We haven’t been difficult,” another neighbour told De Standaard. “We welcomed the arrival of Ikea, and we’re not complaining about lights burning at night. But they promised us this area would only be for residents and buses. And now the first problem becomes an emergency. We feel cheated, and we’re having second thoughts.”

The new store opened last Wednesday and saw 20,000 visitors at the weekend and 50,000 in total up to Monday. The nearby N80 junction with Biesenstraat was dealing with 650 to 700 cars an hour on Saturday, while the Ikea car park has only 1,400 places.

The government of Flanders’ Roads and Traffic Agency will monitor the situation for two weeks before making possible adjustments.

Photo courtesy Het Nieuwsblad/TVL