Brussels businesses take pedestrian zone to Council of State

Two associations representing businesses located in Brussels’ pedestrian zone, in force since last summer, have lodged a complaint with the Council of State aimed at overturning plans to make the zone permanent.

According to a spokesperson for one of the groups, the purpose of the complaint is not to stop the development of the zone but to highlight mobility problems associated with closing the central avenues from Fontainasplein to De Brouckere. The closure forces through traffic into a broad loop around the centre, using narrow cobbled streets.

However, many businesses are unhappy about the pedestrian zone in general. Posters in shop windows along the avenues and beyond declare “Pedestrian Zone = Death to business”. Local shopkeepers, like local residents, bemoan the lack of consultation before the zone was converted overnight last June.

Businesses are also complaining that the city never carried out a study of the impact the zone would have locally. Those complaints are already the subject of cases brought to the Council of State and still pending.