Badly parked drivers in Uccle told: Don't be a Putin and 'annex' the pavement

Angry pedestrians in Uccle have begun a campaign to protest against people who park illegally, putting stickers on cars saying: "Don’t be a Putin. Do not annex the pavement."

On one day in late March alone, some 175 cars received these notices on their rear windows, referring to Russian president Vladimir Putin’s desire to annex Ukraine.

The collective ‘Le Piéton Ucclois en a Marre’ (Uccle pedestrians are fed up) was set up by residents who were tired of what they see as inaction by the commune.

According to the group, Uccle police do not do enough to stop parking offences “that have consequences for pedestrians: they make pavements inaccessible, especially for parents with prams, people in wheelchairs and the elderly".

It added: "These vulnerable users are then forced on to the road, exposing them to the dangers of traffic."

On one single day, 10 February, the collective said: "We were able to count as many as 618 badly parked cars on Uccle’s streets."

And the group claimed mayor Boris Dilliès (MR) would even order police not to issue fines. Dilliès refutes this.

The collective said that Dilliès was not only Uccle mayor but also chief of police in the Marlow police zone (covering Uccle, Watermael-Boitsfort and Auderghem). It said he was to blame for the insecurity created by badly parked cars, “because he deliberately chooses to tolerate a phenomenon that endangers pedestrians”.

With that in mind, the group said the mayor must immediately take the “necessary measures to protect pavements, enforce traffic rules and give police the proper resources to carry out their duties”.

Federal police statistics show that in 2023, 7,254 parking violations were detected in the police zone, with some 6,822 violations recorded in 2022.

In contrast, the Montgomery police zone (Etterbeek, Woluwe-Saint-Pierre and Woluwe-Saint-Lambert), which is similar in terms of population, recorded considerably lower offences in 2023, namely 2,788 infringements.