Traffic Commission: ‘Visitor parking tickets in Blankenberge illegal’
As a result, every family or household domiciled in Blankenberge, as well as owners-renters or users of a second residence in Blankenberge, can purchase an unlimited number of digital visitor parking tickets at € 50.00/10 turns. A first card is even free. The introduction took place without advice from the urban traffic committee, the advisory council only received a notification in February 2022 from the authorized alderman Patrick De Klerck. Further investigation by the chairman of the traffic committee Marc Dhondt and independent expert Marc Vanderbrigghe shows that the visitor card system is illegal.
Marc Dhondt and Marc Vanderbrigghe: “When the (digital) visitor parking cards were introduced, we were left with pertinent questions and reservations. The traffic commission was not informed of any preliminary legal investigation before the introduction of this system. At our request, the knowledge and expertise center examined the file. After an investigation, we were informed that this system is completely in contradiction with the provisions of, among other things, the highway code, which does not include paying (digital) visitor parking tickets for unlimited parking in the blue zone. The center of expertise’s answer is clear, the system is illegal.”
In addition to the illegal regulation of the system of visitor cards, there was also the concern from the traffic committee and from the opposition in the municipal council that the system of cheaper paying (digital) visitor parking cards would be detrimental to the philosophy of peripheral parking, which has already been made more expensive. . This will again attract more tourist parking in the residential areas. The opposition parties in the municipal council have therefore not approved the amendment to the fee regulations, which provide for the introduction of the paying (digital) visitor’s parking card.
“The city council will have to remove this illegality in the fee regulations and have to amend and adjust the regulations again. It is therefore inevitable that the paying (digital) visitor’s parking card to be able to park unlimited in the blue zone without a parking disc will have to be definitively abolished,…” Marc Dhondt and Marc Vanderbrigghe conclude.