Free parking on public holidays does not contribute to inclusiveness and will therefore be abolished in Utrecht.
In the motion of the council factions of Student & Starter, GroenLinks, D66 and PvdD they wanted to abolish free parking because there is no exemption for important holidays from other religions or cultures. The measure would not help to promote inclusiveness and equality.
there's work to be done
Utrecht will immediately abolish the exemption from parking tax on public holidays because it is immediately clear and clear to the target groups and phasing hardly yields any gain in time and working hours for carrying out the technical work.
The work for the abolition of the exemption from paid parking or public holidays consists of adjusting the parking meters, digital registration of parking rights, informing call providers (apps for paid parking), communication and formalizing the lifting of the exemption (college decision). Most of the work is one-off and will start in November this year. These activities coincide with the activities to regulate the rate increase as of 1 January 2023.
motion
From 1 January 2023, a public holiday will therefore become a 'normal' day for parking. For this, the parking meters must be adapted, among other things, and the municipality of Utrecht has also drawn up an approach to inform all target groups. In November last year, the Utrecht political groups such as GroenLinks, Party for the Animals, Student & Starter and D66 submitted motion 430, which was subsequently adopted. In that motion, the parties called for public holidays to be no longer an exception for paid parking.
Guts, daring and ambition. That is what Student & Starter stands for. But also one of the parties that killed free parking. Esma Kendir is student & starter member of the Utrecht city council. During her term of office, Kendir wants to fully commit herself to more equality of opportunity. The free parking in Utrecht would be based too much on Catholic holidays. The measure would not help promote inclusiveness and equality.
street names
Meanwhile, the discussion about 'wrong' street names has been going on in Utrecht for years. Alderman Linda Voortman (GroenLinks, diversity and inclusion) did not like it at first, but DENK's motion was passed with only one vote difference. This means that Utrecht will find out which colonial street names and monuments will be killed.
The Jan Pieterszoon Coenstraat is a street in Lombok in the West district in the Dutch city of Utrecht. The stark white bust of Jan Pieterszoon Coen currently stands in his niche in the Jan Pieterszoon Coenstraat named after him. His hero status has been criticized, especially for his very violent act in the Banda Islands. If it is up to Mahmut Sungur – councilor for DENK, party chairman of Utrecht and manager of the tax authorities – both the bust and the name of the street will soon be a thing of the past.
