Bindal


Bindal is a municipality in the Helgeland region in the extreme southwest part of Nordland county, Norway. The administrative centre is the village of Terråk. Other villages include Bindalseidet, Holm, Vassås, Horsfjord and Åbygda.
The municipality is the 81st largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Bindal is the 304th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 1,426. The municipality's population density is and its population has decreased by 10.9% over the previous 10-year period.

General information

In 1838, the parish of Bindal was split into two municipalities because the parish included land in both the counties of Nord-Trøndelag and Nordland. The new law required that municipalities be located only in one county, so the parish was divided into two municipalities: Nordbindalen and Sørbindalen. In 1852, the county border was moved south to its current position and the municipalities of Nordbindalen and Sørbindalen were merged back together to form the municipality of Bindal. On 1 January 1964, the area around the inner Bindalsfjorden and the village of Lande was transferred to Brønnøy Municipality.

Name

The Old Norse form of the name was Birnudalr. The first element is the genitive case of the river name Birna and the last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale". The river name is derived from the word birna which means " bear".

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted in 1990. The arms show six gold rivets on a blue background to represent the boat building industry in the municipality.

Churches

The Church of Norway has two parishes within the municipality of Bindal. It is part of the Sør-Helgeland prosti in the Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland.
Parish Church NameLocation of the ChurchYear Built
SolstadSolstad ChurchHolm1888
VassåsVassås ChurchVassås1733

Geography

Bindal borders four municipalities in Trøndelag county: Høylandet and Nærøy in the south, Namsskogan in the southeast, and Leka in the west. Bindal also has borders with the Nordland municipalities of Sømna, Brønnøy, and Grane. The Bindalsfjorden runs through the central part of the municipality.
From the coast, the municipality reaches into the mountains towards the lake Majavatnet in Grane. The tallest mountain is the tall Heilhornet. It also includes part of the lakes Eidevatnet and Fjellvatnet, which also partially lie in Brønnøy municipality. Other lakes include Åbjørvatnet, Kalvvatnet, and Saglivatnet. The river Åbjøra runs through the eastern part of Bindal. Part of the island of Austra is in Bindal.

Government

All municipalities in Norway, including Bindal, are responsible for primary education, outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of elected representatives, which in turn elect a mayor. The municipality falls under the Brønnøy District Court and the Hålogaland Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council of Bindal is made up of 17 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the council is as follows:

Mayor

The mayors of Bindal :
The most important industries in Bindal are aquaculture, farming and forestry.

Culture

Boat races for Nordland boats have been held annually since 1978 in the main village of Terråk during the last weekend of June. Bindal has a traditional boat-building industry and Nordland boats are still manufactured here.

Education

Bindal has two schools; one of them is classified as independent and therefore not administered by the municipality.