Near Toulouse, three hundred residents protest against a 36-meter telephone antenna project
Bouygues Telecom will install a 5G telephone antenna on the hillsides of Vigoulet-Auzil. Residents have launched a petition, leaflets and appeals.
At the beginning of the year, some of the 1,100 inhabitants of Vigoulet-Auzil, 10 km south-east of Toulouse, were surprised to discover a poster of “prior non-opposition” approved by the town hall authorizing the construction of a 36-meter pylon for mobile telephony, alley du Parc, at a place called “Le collège”.
Since then, the association MAEVA (Mastering the development of the environment in Vigoulet-Auzil) has launched a petition on change.org, against the installation of this antenna, calling on the mayors of Vigoulet-Auzil and Vieille-Toulouse, the prefect of Haute-Garonne and the presidents of Sicoval and the departmental council.
“In a listed wooded area”
Entitled “no telephone antenna in Vigoulet”, it has so far been signed by 301 people. Supported by a collective of around twenty residents of the Saint-Sernin farm district in Pechbusque, MAEVA distributed five hundred leaflets in the area and wrote to the mayors of Vigoulet-Auzil, Pechbusque and Vieille-Toulouse to denounce “the horror visual, very high frequency radio waves” and proposing to “modernize one of the many surrounding antennas.
Several points bother Didier Beltran, president of MAEVA: “The pylon is planned on a classified wooded area (EBC) near the riding club, an area protected by the PLU, local urban plan. It will be the equivalent of twelve floors! It is right in the middle of the “Green Network” ecological corridor, that of the Pont d’Auzil stream, which extends to the Regional Nature Reserve of the Garonne-Ariège confluence. It is also a “black frame”, evoked by the wild animals, which will be lit at the top of the pylon to be in conformity with the aerodrome of Francazal. We dispute the validity of the non-opposition to the prior authorization: no procedure for informing the population was respected, the municipal council was not consulted”.
“A new obstacle for walkers”
Didier Beltran regrets “a new blow for the environment: “The green belt had been undermined by the subdivision on the edge of Pechbusque and Vigoulet. This project constitutes an additional destruction of the local environment. This is a new obstacle for hikers, riders, mountain bikers… Our village 10 km south of Toulouse is subject to very strong real estate and urban pressure… There is no longer a border between the villages”.
The mayor: “No power of control”
The mayor of Vigoulet-Auzil, Jacques Ségéric, says he is helpless by the situation: “It is the law. A mayor has no power of control, at no time is his opinion asked. Generally, an operator, who has a public delegation from the state, signs with an individual to set up an antenna on private land and submits a prior declaration file. If there is no opposition, the mayor is obliged to take a notice of no opposition. The Council of State regularly breaks all appeals”.
In the past, Jacques Ségéric had opposed an antenna project “on the municipal territory, 50 meters from homes”. In this specific case, he hopes that “the antenna, on the northern slope of Vigoulet, near Pechbusque and Vieille-Toulouse, several hundred meters from the first residents but near the Pony Club, will be hidden by trees so as not to not distort the landscape. I have no information on the implementation time. According to the mayor, there would be only one antenna (Orange) in the town, “so much so that some residents complain that the telephone does not go well”…
Street lights turned off at night
If the antenna project worries environmental activists, the town hall has just decided to turn off public lighting, from midnight to 6 a.m., since February 4. A one-year test. A public meeting was held on October 26, before a municipal council on November 4. Information panels have been installed. According to the town hall, the objective is to “protect biodiversity, because the fauna and flora are impacted by light pollution, save energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote observation of the sky. and stars”.
Bouygues Telecom has been on the air for 3 years
“We have been looking to strengthen our coverage of Vigoulet-Auzil and neighboring towns since 2018, to meet the growth of digital needs and the demand of our customers. The Covid period, with confinements and teleworking, has increased the needs. All our investments respond to deficiencies, to needs,” explains Emmanuel Goulley, head of territorial relations for Bougues Telecom in the South West.
at the time, it was only a question of a mixed 2G, 3G, 4G antenna. With the evolution of technologies, the antenna will of course be adapted to 5G. “We finally found a private plot in 2021 and filed the regulatory dossier at the town hall on July 28. We complied with town planning procedures, filed the preliminary declaration before works and received the notice of no opposition from the town hall on November 17,” continues Emmanuel Goulley.
With another operator
It was only recently that Bouygues and its installation partner, Cellnex, learned of the existence of several remedies. “However, there was no problem, the file remained for a long time in town hall last year. We are in the legal analysis of these free remedies. Justice will have to examine whether the authorization corresponds to the urban plan”, breathes Emmanuel Goulley.
The 36-meter antenna could be installed by the end of 2022: “It will be a mutualizable infrastructure, which can accommodate another operator, which will avoid the construction of a second pylon”.
J.-F L.-G.