Development threat to Saarburg waterfront

EDITORIAL: For years now, the waterfront in Saarburg has remained empty for all to enjoy. Not a single obstruction lies on it, except for the tennis club. Cyclists have happily gone by on their bikes on their way between Trier and Merzig without the need to stop; tourists have not felt the urge to desecrate the river front with their picnics; children have played at home or gone to their friends in other villages; there has never been an event on that land of any kind. And that is how we like it. Empty and unspoilt.

But if a group of nefarious entrepreneurs get their wicked way, that could be about to change. On this pristine carpet of grass and mole hills, the developers want to put an urban-style park with trees, children's play area, mini-golf, an avenue of trees, with bushes, shrubs, flowers, paths, a pond, and an outdoor concert stage.

Devoid of life: just as we like it

Fellow Saarburgers, if we allow this, our peace will be forever shattered. The days when children stay indoors and peace reigns will be lost. The facts that Saarburg, officially a town, does not have more than 100m² of public recreational facilities, and spent €1 million on an car park that is full only 4 times a year along with a set of roads by-passing the town, made its football club move to a fittingly much smaller facility far away and out of sight of any residents makes us the most peace-loving and senior-citizen-friendly town in Rheinland-Pfalz.

Panorama: The view of the church from the eastern side of the bridge would be lost forever.

We  are attracting more old people to our town by allowing a senior home to be built right on the river, and with our retro-themed clothes shops, our cafés that close at 6 and restaurants that serve nothing more exotic than pizza or kebab, we are keeping Saarburg for the elderly, for they are the future. If we wanted to attract the young, we would copy Remich, Rosport or Grevenmacher, but we aren't. We are Saarburg and we want to remain unique in catering for the old.

Threatened: the gravel-strewn road where fishers park

We therefore plead to Saarburg town council to set aside a part of that untouched plot of earth to become a cemetery. This would be a fitting tribute to the people who have kept Saarburg unchanged for hundreds of years. We plead with our readership to lobby our town council to allow our patrons to know, that when they die, they will be interred right next to the place they refused to build on. And all the passers-by on their fancy bikes will know that those heroes, defending the town from the evils of modernity, are the reasons why they can still enjoy an empty and undeveloped riverside.

Red Car Spotted In Bland Town

On Thursday afternoon, our photo reporter was going through Saarburg looking for a story when he came upon this scene: the cautious, bland and featureless character of Saarburg's motoring community fell into shock at the sight of a car that would cause HR departments up and down Germany to question the sanity of its driver (first picture, far left). The traditional colours are grey, silver, blue and black.

In a "town" renowned for its dormitory lifestyle of cautious, characterless commuters who close their front doors at 6 and open them only if the pizza deliverer has been called, a red car would have caused quite a stir.

Local resident Hartmut Landei said: "A red car in Saarburg will lower the tone of the entire neighbourhood. It's no good for business and will make many in town worry for several days that house prices could suffer."

He went on: "For a town full of people whose one sole desire is to make it to the end of their lives without having done anything that could put the orderliness and regularity of their world in jeopardy, this is a game-changer."

It is thought Saarburg's population of nearly 6,000 residents were responsible for the temporary reduction in the speed of broadband in the town on Thursday evening, as locals went on Facebook to see if it was any of their friends who owned the car.

The perpetrator of the panic, the car's driver, was found to be Ms Amélie Laroche, a Frenchwoman who had crossed the border for a day to go shopping in Saarburg. Having not found any shops of note, she parked her car and went to eat a pizza before driving back to France.

The offending red car on the far left

How Saarburg used to look