Paid parking: it won’t be long before it will be introduced in almost all of Amsterdam. That is anything but smooth, says councilor Süleyman Koyuncu (Denk). He receives emails every day from residents who have complaints about the paid parking that is currently being introduced in Nieuw-West.
The complaints vary. For example, applications for parking permits are rejected because there is space in the parking garage while there is no parking garage at all. Or informal caregivers who are dependent on their car and experience problems when applying for a permit.
And Ewart Tamminga from Osdorp, who has been repairing bicycles in his garage for 27 years as a hobby for the neighborhood, always received an exemption for the blue parking zone in his street, thought that this would automatically be converted into a parking permit, but now has to choose: creating bicycles in his box or turn it into a parking space?
Another example, but one that is common: waiting on hold by telephone for hours at the municipality only to be sent from pillar to post. “I really had people crying on the phone,” says Koyuncu.
Press pause button
On Wednesday he submitted no fewer than six motions to traffic councilor Melanie van der Horst (D66) to prevent future problems. Paid parking will be introduced in South East in October, North and Sloterdijk will be next in 2026. What Koyuncu wants is for the municipality to press the pause button and first ensure that there is enough capacity to process all applications, but also to look for good solutions for people like Ewart and the informal caregivers.
The motions were widely supported by opposition parties, but he could not count on much support from Van der Horst. She rejected five of the six motions: the alderman says that the municipality is already deploying more capacity to handle applications, that a lot of customization is being applied throughout the city and that paid parking in Noord is necessary due to the growth of the district in which must be anticipated.
Van der Horst also said that the municipality takes a waterbed effect into account. In doing so, she responds to the criticism from almost all opposition parties that paid parking would only be introduced in places where parking pressure is above 90 percent, as stated in the 2022 coalition agreement, while this is not the case at all in many neighborhoods.
Human size
Moreover, the councilor said, human errors are made. Van der Horst did promise that the municipality will maintain the ‘human scale’ – and so one motion by Koyuncu was adopted. For example, an informal caregiver should be able to obtain a permit more easily than is currently the case.
Koyuncu is happy with that commitment, but also fears that it will not solve the problems. He says that many more people experience stress than this group. Residents who had to apply six times, but things always went wrong. The councilor wonders whether the municipality is ‘in control’ of all the problems it experiences.
He will therefore open a reporting point on Thursday for people who have complaints. If the municipality is not easily accessible, he takes matters into his own hands. He will bundle the complaints and submit them to the alderman. Koyuncu: “We are going to do ombudsman politics.”
Disabled parking card
The problems with paid parking are broader, as experienced by people outside the city who can obtain annual parking permits for people with disabilities. They can always park for free in disabled spaces, but those spaces are almost always occupied.
The municipality of Amsterdam has therefore been applying the rule for some time that they can apply for a parking permit that allows them to park for 150 hours per quarter in ‘normal places’. But now this option is limited and users are experiencing problems with its application, it is reported at Het Parool.
Koyuncu says that his reporting center to be set up is also open to these types of reports.
About the author: David Hielkema writes about Amsterdam politics and also specializes in investigative stories. Tips or comments? [email protected]
Tags: Paid parking NieuwWest problems Denk opens reporting point
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