Member associations of the Consultative Commission for the Environment (CCE) of Toulouse-Blagnac airport, as well as around thirty elected officials from Toulouse and its surroundings, are asking that the possibility of setting up a curfew air is designed to reduce noise pollution from airport traffic.

14 associations that are members of the Consultative Commission for the Environment (CCE) at Toulouse – Blagnac airport, including the collective against air pollution in the Toulouse conurbation (CCNAAT) and France Nature Environment (FNE) Midi-Pyrenees, as well as about thirty elected officials from Toulouse and its surroundings, including Antoine Maurice and Michèle Bleuse, municipal councilors of the Pink City, sign a call for the implementation of a night curfew to be studied among the possible scenarios of the next Environmental Noise Prevention Plan (PPBE). The objective is to find solutions to reduce noise pollution from air traffic at night.

The measures of the old PPBE are considered “insufficient”

The signatories of this appeal consider that the measures taken under the former PPBE, implemented between 2012 and 2017, were not sufficient. Also, that the number of inhabitants subject to nocturnal noise pollution (from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.) “has greatly increased”, even “exceeded, from 2017, the projections for 2030” and that the noise zones in the “heart of the night (from 00 a.m. to 6 a.m.) extended over the most populated districts “of Toulouse.

Registration of the study of a curfew in the next PPBE

Thus, local residents’ associations and elected officials are asking that the study of an aerial curfew be clearly mentioned in the next Plan for the prevention of noise in the environment, being considered as an “appropriate” measure to reduce “caused” noise around Toulouse–Blagnac airport. This curfew would automatically be from 11:30 p.m. to 6 a.m., and would be accompanied by a limit on air traffic from 10 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., then from 6 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. The main objective is to improve the quality of life of residents confronted with noise pollution.

In a press release, the CEC underlines that even Georges Méric, president of the departmental council of Haute-Garonne proposed himself “for” this proposal by mentioning it in a letter translated to the prefect of the department Etienne Guyot.

First refusal from the prefecture last October

The study of the establishment of a curfew had already been mentioned last October during a meeting between the CEC, the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) and the Haute-Garonne prefecture to discuss the results of the last PPBE and start working on the next one. But, according to a press release published by the CCNAAT, no discussion was possible.

Indeed, the collective explains that the associations of residents have mentioned the fact that the study of restrictions on night traffic, going as far as a curfew, is clearly stipulated in the next PPBE. But “the DGAC and the prefecture have vetoed the discussions”, specifies the CCNAAT.