Heilig-Hartplein: From Residential Zone to ‘Cash Cow’ for the City Treasury?
Dear Alderman Joris Vandenbroucke,
(Mobility Ghent, Mieke Hullebroeck, Mathias Declercq, Christophe Peeters)
I am writing to you as a resident of Heilig-Hartplein (Sint-Amandsberg). For the past 5.5 years, I have lived here without significant parking problems or fines. Recently, however, I have been faced with a deluge of GAS fines (municipal administrative sanctions).
I followed the legal route and filed a defense, but I hit a wall of bureaucracy: "rules are rules" and "parking pressure is not force majeure." Legally, the city covers itself, but morally, something is fundamentally wrong here.
The Perverse Incentive of the GAS Budget My neighbors and I have noticed that enforcement has suddenly increased exponentially. It is an open secret that cities, including Ghent, budget GAS fines in advance as "budgeted revenue." This creates a perverse system: the city budgets millions in fines to balance the books. This implies de facto that the city administration hopes citizens will break the rules. If everyone followed the rules perfectly tomorrow, Ghent would have a hole in its budget.
The sudden zeal with which fines are now being issued in my street strongly creates the impression that quotas must be met or that 'reverues' needed to be boosted for a moment. This is no longer about road safety or behavioral change, but about a revenue model.
Organized Force Majeure You ask for behavioral change, but you make it impossible to exhibit the "right" behavior. The situation at Heilig-Hartplein has become untenable due to policy choices made by the city itself:
- The 'Trap' of the Mobility Plan: Due to the circulation cuts ('knips'), my neighborhood is split in two. If I can't find a spot, I cannot circulate to the other side without driving kilometers of detours and standing in traffic jams.
- Permits vs. Spaces: The city issues demonstrably more resident permits than there are physical parking spaces. That is mathematically organizing that people must park incorrectly.
- Increased Pressure: The repurposing of the church into a social meeting place creates extra parking pressure from visitors in the evening, exactly when residents come home.
If I come home after a workday and, after driving in circles, park my car safely (without hindering anyone, but perhaps technically just not in a bay because there aren't any), I get fined.
Conclusion I will pay these fines, because a citizen cannot win against the city's legal apparatus without sky-high legal costs. But I pay under loud protest.
This is not enforcement, this is bullying to fill the city treasury. I invite you to come and look for a parking space on Heilig-Hartplein yourself on a weekday evening after 7:00 PM, before you judge again that parking pressure is "merely an inconvenience."
Awaiting a structural solution – and not merely repression.
Sincerely,
Lieven Cardoen Heilig-Hartplein 3, 9040 Sint-Amandsberg