End of heated terraces in Toulouse, from Friday: the rant of a manager
By David Saint-Sernin
Published on
updated on 1 Apr 22 at 11:26
Starting this Friday 1uh April 2022, the outdoor heating on terraces serums prohibited in restaurants and bars. Coincidence of the calendar, it is the day chosen by cold to return to Toulouse.
The temperature will indeed be negative on Friday morning and a few snowflakes are expected in the Pink City from this night. Haute-Garonne has even been placed on orange alert.
Measure postponed
The measure was planned for a long time since it had been adopted on August 22, 2021 as part of the Climate and Resilience law.
In order not to penalize restaurateurs and bars in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, its application had been postponed until the end of winter.
From Friday, the measure must therefore be applied. Benjamin Greenvice-president of the CPME 31 years old and manager of the company Prima Family which owns five establishments, including four in Toulouse regrets this “brutal implementation”. He explains it. Maintenance.
Exceptions to the new law
The decree of March 31, 2022 specifies the conditions of application of this regulation and provides four exceptions concerning equipment or activities not affected by this ban: closed tents for circuses and fairground activities, covered and closed mobile installations for cultural events, temporary sporting or festive events; waiting areas in stations, ports and airports; bars, cafes, restaurants whose terraces are entirely “covered and closed on their side faces by solid walls connected by an airtight joint to the upper wall”, provided that the competent local authority does not object not with this exception. As of June 30, 2022, a fifth-class fine (up to €1,500), increased in the event of a repeat offence, will penalize the violation of this provision.
“This measure is political, not ecological”
News: The end of the heating of outdoor terraces, what does it change for a company like yours?
Benjamin Serra: It changes a lot of things. My first feeling is injustice, because this measure is political, not ecological. It is even the least effective measure that has been retained, because it only applies to terraces that are in public space. However, these public terraces represent only a minority of heated terraces. On the other hand, for some establishments, they represent their entire company. In fact, by this measure, some will find themselves in very great difficulty. And just because we’re going to turn off the heating for a few months doesn’t mean we’re going to solve the problem of global warming.
This will be a way to save energy…
: Indeed, but what we will lose in lost turnover, we will not recover it with these energy savings. For some, this will be a shortfall, but for others, their entire business will collapse… Take an establishment that has 30 outdoor seats and 30 indoor seats, with this measure , it loses 50% of its capacity.
Heating outdoor terraces may not make sense, but we needed to be given more time, five or six years, to change habits and find alternatives. We could have started by looking for clean energy suppliers or allowing establishments that use renewable energies to heat their terraces…
Changing customer habits, is it so complicated?
: It should already be remembered that these are habits that were adopted when establishments became non-smoking. Then, the observation is that Wednesday, it was raining and yet I had more reservations for the heated terrace than indoors. Clearly, people want to get some fresh air during their lunch break…
“No communication will be made”
Have you communicated the new regulations to your customers?
: There was no particular communication and no communication will be made by tomorrow (the interview was carried out on Thursday, editor’s note).
How it will go ?
: I don’t know… What I can say is that it will be 3°C in Toulouse over the next few days and no one wants to stop heating the terraces in this context, it’s a evidence.
What consequences could this new rule have on the operation of your establishments?
: They are significant, especially since April 1 will be synonymous with other changes for us. Everything happens at the same time. This April 1 marks the end of many covid terraces in Toulouse, which is a huge disappointment. It is also on April 1 that we must start repaying the State Guaranteed Loan (PGE) that we took out during the Covid period. This PGE represents 25% of our turnover for the year 2019 and we must repay it over five years… This April 1 also marks strong increases in our branch, of the order of 10 to 24%. It’s worth it but you have to realize what it means for a company of 200 employees like ours which had to deal with the covid period and which now has to deal with measures related to terraces while reimbursing the PGE of State.
Was this article helpful to you? Note that you can follow Actu Toulouse in the My Actu space. In one click, after registration, you will find all the news of your favorite cities and brands.