Bloco de Esquerda in Lisbon protests against parking on sidewalks

The Left Bloc (BE) in the Municipal Assembly of Lisbon this Monday questioned the permission to park cars on sidewalks in the parish of Belém, arguing that this decision “contradicts the right to mobility”.

“This permit issued by the municipality is contrary to the right to mobility of people with reduced mobility, people with children or the elderly. In recent days, this fact has been demonstrated by a video filmed by a citizen with limited mobility who was unable to cross the street in Restelo,” says BE in an appeal to the President of the Municipal Assembly of Lisbon (AML), Rosário Farmhouse (PS), demanding that the decision be reversed and the right guaranteed for mobility.

We are talking about the decision of the Parish Council of Belem and the City Council of Lisbon (CML) to install, from March 25, vertical signs on the streets of Rua Dom Cristovan da Gama, Rua Tristan da Cunha and Rua San Francisco Xavier, in the Do Restelo area, allowing cars to be parked on the sidewalks with two wheels on both sides of the road.

In a post on its official Facebook page, the Belém Parish Council, chaired by Fernando Ribeiro Rosa (PSD), said the signs are part of a “temporary regularization that is now being carried out urgently due to difficult parking conditions.” in the area, but it’s already been thought about.”

“Vehicle drivers are asked to take the necessary precautions and be careful to leave space (about 1.20 meters) for pedestrians to move safely on the sidewalks, especially those using wheelchairs or prams,” the municipality said.

On March 26, Fernando Ribeiro Rosa reported that the signs had already been installed, “ending and legitimizing, albeit temporarily, a parking practice that has continued since the creation of the area, that is, about 70 years.”

“From now on, we will continue to think of a definitive and realistic way to finally solve the problem, but without harming the residents with fines resulting from complaints from half a dozen poorly trained people, insensitive to the pain and harm they cause the majority of the community members live in Bairro do- Reshtelo,” said the mayor of the SDP on the social network Facebook.

Calling for the community’s understanding, Belem Parish Council held a public meeting on Thursday to hear residents’ views on the issue.

For the municipal group BE, the permission of Belém Parish Council and Lisbon City Council to park cars on sidewalks “does not comply with established regulations.”

“The accessibility regime for buildings and institutions that access public roads, public roads and residential buildings, Decree-Law No. 163/2006 of August 8 stipulates that pedestrian routes must guarantee a “continuous and unobstructed channel for the movement of obstacles” and that a minimum the width of sidewalks on main roads should be 1.5 meters on main roads and 1.2 meters on others, which CML has no control over,” points out BE.

The blockers also state that, in accordance with Article 49 of the Traffic Regulations, it is prohibited to stop and park on the sidewalk, and violators are punished with a fine of 60 to 300 euros.

In this sense, BE asks the President of the Municipal Assembly of Lisbon to contact the Mayor for clarification on the following questions: “Why did the CML allow sidewalk parking in Belém? When will signs appear allowing this parking, which is contrary to the right to What measures will HML take to ensure compliance with the law and the right to mobility? In particular, as part of control over illegal parking.”

Currently, the 17-member executive body of the Lisbon Chamber is composed of seven elected members of the Novos Tempos coalition (PSD/CDS-PP/MPT/PPM/Alliance), who are the only ones with assigned responsibilities and who govern without absolute majority – three from PS, two from PCP, three from Cidadãos Por Lisboa (elected by the PS/Livre coalition), one from Livre and one from BE.