Local councils cannot remove wrongly parked bikes without a warning, unless they pose an acute danger by, say, blocking an emergency exit, a court in Utrecht has ruled.

The case was brought by a woman in Utrecht whose bike was removed from the city’s main station. She was awarded €1,000 in compensation.
She had placed her bike next to a bike rack, and this was not a dangerous location which required emergency removal, the judge said. In such cases the council should hang a sticker on the bike and give the owner 24 hours to remove it, he said.
Shortage
The Dutch cyclists association said it is pleased with the ruling. It has long campaigned against the widespread policy of removing bikes which are not in an official parking place.
It argues there is a huge shortage of places to put bikes in the bigger cities, particularly close to stations and shopping centres.
Last year, some 35,000 wrongly-parked bikes were removed in Amsterdam.