Michael van de Kuit, the owner of the Werkspoorhal, writes on LinkedIn on 10 April: “Today we visited the monumental Van Gendt Werkspoorhallen in Amsterdam. The halls are 50 meters away from the Werkspoorhal where the municipality recently refused the environmental permit for padel because the municipal monument is being disfigured. The historical van Gendthallen are unrecognizable. Are we seeing a municipal council here that applies double standards?” 

In the meantime, Michael van de Kuit has erected construction fences around the Werkspoorhal. When asked ‘why’ and ‘for how long’ he answered: “in the coming years to prevent hassle with vagrants, vandals, nitrous oxide cartridges, drug use and many other nuisance reports. Padel, it could have prevented a lot of hassle.” 

Now that the padel courts in the Werkspoorhal are, at least for the moment, canceled, hopefully the future of the Werkspoorhal will be as it was originally intended: as an accessible and vibrant heart of the neighborhood.