What problem is this a solution for?! Most residents of the Klein Martijn district are not happy with paid parking in their neighborhood.
Less greenery in the front gardens and more concrete tiles. The introduction of paid parking in Klein Martijn as of January 1 has unexpected effects.
Take the neighbors across the street from residents Bernard Koops and Lucas Bartlema on Ludemaborg. They have enlarged the driveway at their house to be able to park a second car. Then they do not have to apply for a resident’s permit for this.
Klein Martijn is located on the southeast side of the Helpman district. The neighborhood is spacious: almost all houses have their own driveway, apart from the apartment complexes, which also have their own parking lot. Paid parking has been in effect here since January 1.
Especially difficult
Koops and Bartlema are not happy about that at all. They are especially angry about the way in which the municipality of Groningen has imposed this on local residents. There would have been no proper consultation. Suddenly last autumn they were told that the paid parking regime would also be extended to their neighborhood.
Paid parking is especially difficult. You pay a few tens of euros per year for a permit (closer to the city center it is more expensive) and you can then park the car on the street in your neighborhood. But if you occasionally receive visitors by car, some people become confused. Does paid parking apply until six o’clock or is it until eight o’clock in the evening? And how do you register a visitor again? Unfortunately, the municipal website does not excel in user-friendliness.
However, Bartlema and Koops are particularly indignant about the way in which the municipality came to the conclusion that the residents of Klein Martijn themselves would like paid parking, because they would suffer a lot from ‘foreign parkers’. “On that point, the municipality simply misinformed the council,” says Koops.
Beuckemaborg
The misunderstanding arose because residents of Beuckemaborg held a meeting in April last year with neighbors and some municipal officials. The Beuckemaborg did suffer from some parking nuisance. There were about forty attendees and the majority were in favor of paid parking. The Beuckemaborg runs parallel to the Helperzoom, where paid parking has already been introduced.
Bartlema: “The residents of the Beuckemaborg indeed had a nuisance, but this has now been resolved. There have never been any illegal parking situations in the streets further away.”
Bartlema and Koops themselves held a signature campaign against paid parking at 177 houses in the four streets of Klein Martijn. The vast majority, 114 residents, signed. “Not only that, it turned out to us that many people were also angry about paid parking,” says Koops.
Futile conversation with alderman
Koops and Bartlema informed the municipality of their findings and objections through letters to the municipal council and the mayor and aldermen. A conversation with traffic councilor Philip Broeksma (GroenLinks) yielded nothing.
Koops is a former councilor for the CDA. He is therefore very aware that the municipality will not reverse the decision on paid parking. “But I find it difficult to accept that they took this decision over our heads,” says Bartlema. “We would find it appropriate if the municipality apologized for the course of events,” says Koops.
No escape
There is no escape from paid parking for most Groningen residents, as the municipality also indicates in a note. “We want to reduce the obvious dominance of parked cars in the street scene,” it says. And: “parking in Groningen was always free, unless paid. But we want to go to paid unless free.”
Koops: “The municipality is gradually introducing paid parking and then says that this system should also be introduced in the next neighborhood because of the waterbed effect. Well, that was certainly not the case in Klein Martijn.”
2024-01-20 18:00:00
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