Toulouse: poster war on municipal billboards
Covered by posters of concerts and various events, do free expression panels in Toulouse allow associations, political parties and residents to express themselves? No, judge the elected opposition Odile Maurin.
Are there enough free expression billboards in Toulouse, ie reserved for associations, individuals, unions and political parties? And will they staff their function? This question, recurring during election campaigns with parties denouncing a lack of space, came to the table of the municipal council on February 8 on the occasion of a wish from Odile Maurin, opposition municipal councilor of the municipalist group . Independently of the current electoral context, on a subject on which she had wanted, she explains, to intervene for a long time, she judges, in the wake of the association “Un mur dans le réel”, that “regulation is not respected” and above all that “the use of the panels should be reserved for residents and associations” while they are covered by announcements of concerts, circus or other private companies. “It’s important so that there can be a popular expression,” she pleads.
Toulouse has 64 free expression panels. And for Thierry Sentous, municipal councilor in charge of street furniture, “this number will not change because it complies with the regulations”. On the other hand, the elected official recognizes that “the use is often diverted by commercial display”. Today, as part of the delegation granted to JCDecaux, the panels are cleaned once a month. Thierry Sentous affirms that he wants to ask for a “more frequent passage, especially in this electoral period”, but that this effort remains outside the framework of the relations fixed by the concession. In fact, one poster, whatever it is, replaces another at a breakneck pace.