Jeu de Balle merchants against underground parking

The Brussels city council is planning a new underground car park under the Place du Jeu de Balle/Vossenplein, the site of Brussels' best known flea market in the heart of the Marolles district. The parking is one of four new parks planned for the city centre.

"We hear that the construction of the parking lot will take 30 months," said the secretary of the flea market association Friends of the Old Market. "By the time the work is done, there will be no clients left and the neighbourhood will be worse off for it."

Brussels Mobility Minister Els Ampe (Open VLD) on Thursday said that the construction project would start in 2016 and take a year and a half to finish. Minister of Commerce Marion Lemesre (MR) confirmed that the famous flea market will be able to continue to take place daily on alternating halves of the square.

"Fifty percent of the square means fifty percent of the merchant families ruined," according to Friends of the Old Market.