Belgium/Parking in Dinant: college signs contract with Indigo

Could this be the end of the parking saga in Dinant? Since the beginning of January, parking in Dinant has been free of charge. The reason was that the contract with the parking manager had expired, and the local council had failed to adopt the final parking regulations that would have allowed a new contract to be signed. Faced with this frozen situation, the local council looked for another way of concluding the contract.

After making sure that it was within its rights with the regional supervisory authority, the local council (alderman Robert Closset was not present) signed the contract with parking operator Indigo on Friday. The regulations on which the contract is based are the original regulations of February 2023, which had been approved by the municipal council. "We asked the supervisory authority whether the by-laws voted in February 2023, which were only slightly modified afterwards, could be considered as a new contract.could be considered effective and legal for the purposes of signing the contract," explains Thierry Bodlet, Mayor of Dinant. The Tutelle gave us a positive response. So we signed the contract. Because it's the college that signs, and not the local council".

What are the immediate consequences for users?

"For the time being, nothing at all. We need to install the parking meters, the signage and so on. All that can be done fairly quickly, but we need the time to do it. We agreed with the concessionaire anyway that things had to be done smoothly. So we're not going to catch people unawares by controlling parking without everyone having been warned and having had the opportunity to take the necessary steps to have free parking in the town center".

Source: www.rtbf.be/