The City of Brussels registered 50,947 municipal administrative sanctions (MAC) in 2018, according to information published on Monday in La Capitale and confirmed by Mayor Philippe Close’s office. Parking in unauthorized areas represented the majority of the fines, with over 41,000 given for illegal parking sanctions. Among these are 14,212 for parking in conventional no-parking zones, 9,027 on sidewalks, 3,554 on bike paths, 2,318 double-parking and 2,503 on pedestrian crossings.
Since road safety appears to be the residents’ first priority, the mayor said he was prepared to participate with the Region in the financial investment of fixed radar cameras. A dozen parking meter controllers have been hired and it is expected that bike police patrol will be increased up to 100 by 2020. Philippe Close is pleased by the decrease in offences by 28% in 3 years.
In addition to parking tickets, 1,826 penalties were given in 2018 for incivility, such as insulting a police officer (323), shoplifting (130), unauthorized demonstration (182), urine or sputum (128), refusal to obey the police (104) and littering butts or cans (97).
Shops received, for their part, 578,208 fines for non-licensed public area occupation, 126 for opening an unauthorized facility, 126 for disturbance and 119 for terraces exceeding the authorized area.
The mediator can propose community serving hours, in place of the fine’s payment. The payment can also be staggered. The mayor said he was in favour of modifying the law to allow payment based on individual income.
The Brussels Times
