An advertising panel, in Montpellier (Archives) -

N. Bonzom / Maxele Presse

  • Sunday, while hundreds of people marched for the climate in Montpellier, elected officials and associations asked the metropolis to ban advertising.

  • This Monday, during the metropolitan council, the community, after a heated debate, reduced (a little) the scope, but did not ban it from the city.

  • This vote disappointed environmentalist associations who saw this approach as an opportunity.

Sunday, while hundreds of people marched for the climate in the streets of Montpellier (Hérault), elected representatives of the environmental opposition and environmentalist associations urged, on social networks, Michaël Delafosse (PS) to ban (or at least, to reduce) billboards in town.

“Continuity or courage?

Asked the We Are movement on Twitter.

“We're watching you!

», Blurted out to the mayor the group ANV (Non-violent action) COP-21, which defends the end of publicity in the city.

But if other municipalities in France, such as Grenoble (Isère) led by a mayor EELV, have taken the plunge in recent years, it is not, for the moment, in the plans of the mayor (PS) and president of the metropolis of Montpellier.

This Monday, Michaël Delafosse, elected with the support of environmentalists, had a “local inter-municipal advertising regulation” vote during the metropolitan council, which still leaves the field open to advertising lollipops.

It is "not up to the stakes"

But the new device, which gives mayors police power and protects villages which currently have no legal framework on this subject, nevertheless (somewhat) restricts the place given to advertising in the territory: it authorizes "about 25% less advertising devices in the metropolis", explained Frédéric Lafforgue (LR), vice-president in charge of roads.

In addition, the new regulations reduce the size of authorized digital advertisements from 8 to 4 square meters in certain areas.

For the elected member of the opposition Alenka Doulain (We are), for whom the impact of advertising on the landscape and the environment is "catastrophic", it is "not up to the stakes".

“What are the advances?

Too little, ”regrets the chosen one.

"We can't wait"

Mathilde Borne (various left), elected from the opposition in Castelnau-le-Lez, sees the modification of the regulations as a "real opportunity to improve the preservation of the environment and the living environment".

But, she continues, the plan proposed by the metropolis “unfortunately lacks ambition”.

“Illuminated and digital billboards are major sources of pollution,” she laments.

By their electricity consumption: these panels can consume as much electricity as a household of three people.

“Not to mention, she continues, the impact of their manufacture.

Among the green people of the majority too, the decision is cringe.

"We can not support a regulation that integrates digital screens without saying precisely when, or how, we will remove them from the landscape," scolds Célia Serrano (EELV).

Our mandate began in July 2020. We cannot wait to launch the advertising light pollution removal project.

"For the elected, assistant to artistic education, this" requirement of energy sobriety "would even be" at the heart "of the election of the couple PS / Greens, in 2020.

“We don't want to do Time Square!

"

“Of our old centers, the Comédie, the Ecusson, we don't want to make Time Square!

», Annoys Frédéric Lafforgue, alluding to this famous New York square, overlooked by advertising screens.

This regulation, continues Michaël Delafosse, will notably make it possible to “remove the signs which damage the Haussmannian facades” on the Place de la Comédie.

And this device can be "revised" regularly, "to progress," says the mayor.

"We expected nothing, and we are still disappointed," lamented, on Monday, on Twitter, the Montpellier group ANV (Non-violent action) COP-21, after the adoption, by the metropolitan council, of the new regulations.

Our advertising dossier

“Montpellier is missing the opportunity to vote for an ambitious local advertising regulation, choosing to listen to posters rather than citizens, regrets for its part the collective Resistance to advertising aggression.

Unfortunately classic.

"

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  • Society

  • Montpellier

  • Languedoc-Roussillon

  • ecology

  • Publicity

  • Michael Delafosse