• Lille has launched a public consultation to requalify a major avenue in the city.

  • The inhabitants must choose between four projects with budgets between 25 and 60 million euros.

  • The duration of the consultation was finally extended, less than 10,000 people having spoken in two weeks.

Participatory democracy is a great idea that the town hall of Lille has decided to implement in an original way, and not for carrot rings.

At the beginning of May, the city launched a consultation with its inhabitants, invited to choose between four scenarios for the requalification of an avenue in the city for envelopes of between 25 and 60 million euros.

Despite the stakes, and a little more than two weeks after the opening of the online votes, very few voters had spoken.

This is a consultation method that had never been implemented in Lille: asking residents registered on the electoral lists to vote on an urban planning site via a secure online voting platform.

The idea was attractive, so much so that the municipality was already thinking of using it for other projects.

For the requalification of the Belgian People, voters had to vote between May 2 and May 23.

At the end, Martine Aubry, mayor of Lille, had promised: the choice of Lille, whatever it is, will be respected.

Less than 10,000 Lille residents voted

Yes, but now, when some critics of the mayor accuse him of governing unilaterally, the people of Lille do not get involved when they have the opportunity.

Indeed, this Tuesday, only 9,759 people had voted on the dedicated site.

This represents only 7.66% of the 127,360 Lille residents registered on the electoral lists.

Is the city really ready to commit to a potential 60 million euro project on the advice of such a small part of its population?

Probably not.

It is undoubtedly for this reason that the duration of the consultation has been doubled, the

deadline

now being set for June 6 instead of May 23.

It only remains for Martine Aubry to motivate her constituents.

A rottweiler escapes and attacks a 2-year-old child near Lille

Lille

Lille: The very good surprises of the Utopia opening parade

  • Lille

  • Hauts-de-France

  • Participative democracy

  • Vote

  • Town planning