Amsterdammers left bemused at plan to tackle flowerpot ‘jungle’

Residents have reacted with bemusement at plans by authorities in Amsterdam to crack down on what it sees as a plague of messy plant pots.

In an approach named “Operation plant pot” by the local media, the Dutch capital’s central district is limiting residents to two pots with footprints no larger than 50cm by 50cm, made of “sustainable” material and placed against their front wall. Rogue gardens of pots in parking spots and under trees will be confiscated, according to the policy memo.

At a council meeting on Tuesday, the central city chief, Amélie Strens, said neglected pots were unattractive, bad for biodiversity and made facilities less accessible for those with mobility aids and pushchairs.

“A work experience person spent several days going around the district and made an inventory of more than 900 pots,” she said. “They no longer look like beautiful, attractive plant pots. Stickers will be put on them with the question: ‘Do I belong to anyone? Adopt me!’ and a QR code. If someone doesn’t respond within six weeks … the city will clean them up.”

She added that the priority was to tackle “excessive” pot placement. “Some residents are gradually putting an awful lot of pots by their front doors,” she said. “There are excesses that really threaten accessibility and cause friction between neighbours.”

Some Amsterdammers are pleased the city is responding to people’s concerns about crowded pavements. “Public space is vulnerable – it belongs to us all but at the same time it belongs to nobody,” said Rogier Noyon, the chair of the local Voordestad (for the city) group.

“It’s difficult with greenery, because it has acquired a holy aura … so residents think anything to do with green is good. But room is important for people with a handicap, who use an assisted walker, people with pushchairs. It’s the council’s job to communicate that public space belongs to us all, but that this does not mean the law of the jungle.”

Others, however, are critical of the scheme, pointing out the huge amount of public space taken up by abandoned or parked bicycles and licensed bar terraces, as well as litter and the effect on the city of the 22 million annual overnight tourists.

Rogier Havelaar, a councillor for the Christian Democratic Alliance, said in a general council meeting that not a cent of public enforcement money should be spent on improving the state of plant pots. “I don’t think that the council should do this,” he said. “If there’s a pot in the way, you just push it to one side. What you don’t do is make 31 rules for a whole district.”

On the streets of Amsterdam, residents reacted with bemusement to the plans. Karoly Almoes, 79, and originally from Hungary, had placed a bench surrounded by greenery including plastic flowers, fairy lights, a cactus and a miniature clementine tree outside his house. “The future is a city with all kinds of plants – a kind of food forest,” he said.

Ryan Pugh, 24, said car parking had recently been removed from his local canal and replaced by the city with boxes of greenery, attracting bees and butterflies. “Two plant pots is ridiculous,” he said. “I have at least 10. It doesn’t incentivise people to make the street their own and more welcoming for everyone.”

Bert Nap, former editor of the inner city paper d’Oude Binnenstad and a campaigner for liveability, said the start of the crackdown would be a “sad day”.

“Residents who love where they live and take pleasure in decorating it should be cherished,” he said. “Perhaps if they don’t choose quite the right vegetation, the municipality could take the line of informing and encouraging people to green the place in a responsible way.”

Other free-spirited Amsterdammers said they had no intention of complying with the new rules – even if the city advocated planting directly into permitted “pavement gardens” as a more sustainable alternative. A swapping library of pots at the corner of the Rechtboomssloot was in a full state of nurtured wilderness. “Dear neighbours,” read a label. “If you’ve got a free cutting or plant, feel free to take a pot and add it here. Every little green bit helps.”