Brussels Mobility sues Uccle for removing bicycle parking
Brussels Mobility is taking the municipality of Uccle to court over what it describes as the illegal removal of bicycle parking. Mayor Boris Dilliès (MR) removed bicycle stands from the Chaussée de Waterloo - a regional road - in order to please busi
Brussels Mobility is taking the municipality of Uccle to court over what it describes as the illegal removal of bicycle parking.
Mayor Boris Dilliès (MR) removed bicycle stands from the Chaussée de Waterloo - a regional road - in order to please business owners, Bruzz reports.
“It’s clear that the municipality has committed a wrongful act without any legal basis,” outgoing mobility minister Elke Van den Brandt (Groen) said.
“Destroying regional infrastructure is taking the law into your own hands and a form of vandalism.
"Brussels Mobility has sent a formal notice to the municipality, asking it to restore everything to its original state, which the municipality has not done. In response, Brussels Mobility has started legal proceedings."
A traders’ association protested against the bicycle parking recently installed in Uccle, which was placed in a space formerly – but illegally – used for car parking.
Mayor Dilliès had the bike racks removed last month and wants the region to pay for the flower boxes he put in their place.
“That's what happens when you don't consult,” MEP Ibrahim Dönmez (PS) said.
But Van den Brandt pointed to numerous consultations that took place regarding what to do with the former parking space, which was removed because it was too close to a pedestrian crossing, harming visibility.
“It was agreed not to put those bike stands there until after the municipal elections on 13 October, at the express request of the municipality,” she said.
Dilliès asked for flower boxes instead of bicycle parking, but concerns were raised about these obscuring pedestrians – children, in particular – from the view of motorists.
“That the mayor places flower boxes there now shows that he understands that he will be in serious trouble should a child be hit there,” MEP Stijn Bex (Groen) said.
Figures reveal that there were 362 accidents in 2023 in the Brussels region in which a pedestrian was hit while using a zebra crossing. In Uccle there were 44 accidents in 2022 and 2023 combined involving pedestrians crossing, resulting in 46 injuries, two of them serious.
Dilliès claimed the flower boxes prevent people from sloppily placing rental scooters in what would become a designated drop-zone from them, as these are attached to bicycle parking.
But this concern over scooters was only raised recently, with the original complaint stemming from the removal of illegal parking spots that business owners wanted to keep.
“The political scientists of the future will fall off their chairs when they read that in Brussels in 2024, the year when all climate records were broken, there were MPs defending an illegal and dangerous car park,” MEP Isabelle Pauthier (Ecolo) said in parliament.
The lawsuit could be heard in court as early as January.
Related
Share this page
Guest Posts by Easy Branches
