Due to a bug in the new system of Parking.Brussels, thousands of people who parked their cars incorrectly never received their parking tickets.
"The technology is pretty complicated, and we are dependent on our supplier," said Pierre Vassart, spokesperson of Parking.Brussels, in La Dernière Heure. "From 1 April until July, we had a computer bug, which resulted in people not receiving their tickets," he added.
The municipality of Ixelles is part of the regional parking agency since 1 April. "When the system was unblocked, we discovered that some people did not know they sometimes received 50 fines for the same kind of offence," he added. Parking.Brussels works with a system of 'scancars', a car or scooter driving around scanning license plates.
"The first months with Parking.Brussels have not been going very smoothly," said Yves Rouyet (Ecolo), Alderman for Mobility, to Bruzz. "The problem lies with the 'scancars'," he added.
At least part of the fines will be dropped, according to Rouyet. "People who have more than four tickets for the same kind of offence will not have to pay them. Fines for an expired parking card will also be cancelled as people never received an announcement that their card had expired," he added.
A total of 13,000 fines were cancelled, for an amount of €325,000.
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
