The summary judge of the Nantes administrative court on Monday rejected the prefectural request for the suspension of a decree from the mayor of La Montagne (Loire-Atlantique), prohibiting the waste of phytosanitary products that spill out of the treated plots, a-t - we learned from the municipality.
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"I confirm"
that the judge, seized in summary, rejected the request of the prefecture, told AFP this Monday evening the mayor of La Montagne, Fabien Gracia, elected in the first round of municipal elections in March 2020 in this town of 6000 inhabitants, west of Nantes.
Taken at the beginning of January, this municipal decree assimilates to a deposit of waste all the discharges of phytosanitary products which spread outside the site for which they are intended.
“A plant protection product whose dispersion cannot be controlled, in the ground or by the wind, becomes neither more nor less than waste.
It is no longer usable, ”
the mayor explained in the regional press in January.
“It spreads in the surrounding public or private spaces, is found in waterways.
It undermines health and the environment, ”
Fabien Gracia argued.
"As with all wild waste, it is within the competence of the mayor to prohibit rejection".
The case should be examined on the merits in a few months by the administrative court.
Similar decrees in other municipalities
In the immediate future, La Montagne has inspired several other municipalities, including the city of Grenoble, which issued an order two weeks ago on similar legal bases.
Likewise, last week, ten localities in Ile-de-France adopted a similar common decree, obliging them to
“eliminate waste from the use of phytosanitary products or pesticides”
, in response to a decision of the Council of State refusing them. the regulation of these disputed products.
In this decision rendered on December 31, the Council of State had definitively considered that the mayors did not have the power to issue decrees prohibiting the use of pesticides in their municipalities, the regulation of these contested products falling under the prerogatives of the 'State.
This decision came after a vast debate on the use of pesticides that had started in the spring of 2019 when the mayor of Langouët (Ille-et-Vilaine) Daniel Cueff, who has since left office, issued a decree prohibiting the use of plant protection products “at a distance of less than 150 m from any cadastral plot comprising a building for residential or professional use”.
Several dozen municipalities then issued similar decrees, which were subsequently invalidated.
