The City Council of Ghent wants to pursue a stricter parking policy and give the city more green space by imposing a ban on parking on paved parking spaces in its own front garden.

“By making a driveway, the street is privatized. As with garages, other drivers are not allowed to park in front of it, ”says Filip Watteeuw, ships of Urban Planning Filip Watteeuw (Green).

However, the pressure from the Ghent city council to limit paved parking spaces has met with criticism. The measure was described by N-VA Gent city councilor and party chairman Anneleen Van Bossuyt as “bullying people with a car”.

“I agree that pavement of front gardens should be avoided as much as possible, but that does not exclude the construction of a parking space. To prevent all public parking spaces from disappearing from a street, it was already forbidden to pave a front yard. Of course, some residents still did without a permit, ”explains Van Bossuyt.

In new residential blocks with terraced houses, the city of Ghent no longer issues permits for paved driveways and parking spaces in a front garden. "A front garden is a garden and it has to be green," said Watteeuw.

electric driving will be for problem to care

“We will all be driving electric soon, but where will we charge if you cannot stand at your own door?”, Says Viviane De Groof.

The view that paving everything is bad for water drainage in rain can also be solved with a water-permeable driveway. Of course if you want to park in a street, but everywhere the front gardens have been transformed into private parking spaces, you will probably not be able to park in that street without breaking the law.

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