Energy savings in Toulouse: at the Barrière-de-Paris, “minimum lighting is needed”
In the different districts of Toulouse, the associations of inhabitants are not hostile to extinction but often ask for a minimum of lighting.
Turn off the lights after midnight? The representatives of some neighborhood committees that we contacted yesterday do not say no. In Saint-Simon, an outlying district, Michel Herbach, president of Saint-Simon Environnement, even intended to make the proposal for several reasons. Some residents are bothered by lighting that is too close to their homes. Streetlights are also considered unnecessary when they are, for example, on an unused bus lane at night. Finally, the objectives of “ecology and economy” obviously weighed. In Bonhoure-Guilheméry, Thierry Jouclas, the president of the neighborhood association, says he is “rather in favor of intelligent sobriety” especially in a “quiet” neighborhood where safety “is not the main subject”.
At the Barrière-de-Paris, Serge Baggi is more measured. “It’s also a matter of security. We must keep a minimum of lighting, ”says the president of this active neighborhood committee, in particular about the nuisances linked to prostitution. For him, you have to “find a compromise, a balance. And also take into account “equity” so that “the energy saving effort is shared”.
In the forefront against the nuisances of the Toulouse night, and often raised against the town hall for this, the BVTC association is not hostile to extinction either. Patrick Affre says “yes to the economy but perhaps not to extinction”. And he suggests turning on only one in two streetlights, which, if possible, could keep the light on “because it’s not conceivable to imagine any lighting”.
President of the association of merchants and craftsmen of Faubourg-Bonnefoy, Jean-Louis Ortiz is worried about road traffic. “With scooters, bicycles and scooters, you need eyes everywhere. Especially if the lighting is poor.”