A mission on the ZFE appointed to the mayor of Toulouse
At the head of a group of local elected officials, representatives of companies and associations, Jean-Luc Moudenc will look into the difficulties raised by Low Emission Zones (ZFE) which aim to prohibit most polluting vehicles in city centres.
As the standoff begins between the government and the unions on pension reform, is this a way to demine another contentious subject, that of Low Emission Zones which ban the most polluting vehicles in 43 agglomerations? In Toulouse, the ZFE, introduced on March 1, 2022, entered a new phase on January 1, 2023 with the prohibition, for the first time, of private vehicles, the Crit’Air 4, 5 and unclassified (c i.e. petrols before 1997 and diesels before 2006). In the absence of systematic checks, as should be the case with the arrival of cameras in 2024, the threat remains relatively theoretical, but anger is beginning to be expressed among all those who find themselves excluded from the perimeter.
During his wishes to the press on January 5, Jean-Luc Moudenc, the mayor of Toulouse, who had already led a delegation from urban France on this subject during the autumn, reiterated his criticisms of the ZFE. The next day, he met Christophe Béchu, Minister for Ecological Transition, who offered to lead a working group on this subject. Objective: “identify all the difficulties and make proposals”, summarizes the mayor of Toulouse who has six months to submit a report.
The working group will be co-led by an elected ecologist from Strasbourg, Anne-Marie Jean, and will include, in addition to local elected officials, representatives of businesses and associations. A group of “field actors”, emphasizes Jean-Luc Moudenc.
This targets several subjects: the aid that he wants more important, the criterion of the vignettes that he calls into question – “I would like us to base ourselves on the actual pollution of a vehicle and not its date of in circulation” – and the simplification of access to these aids. The goal is “that the most modest, homes and businesses, be helped more. »