Le Figaro Bordeaux
Bordeaux, a city with more and more trees and less and less light.
As part of its energy sobriety plan, the ecological municipality has decided to turn off part of the public lighting in the streets, from January 2, 2023. A decision presented as making it possible to reduce the energy bill by 880,000 euros per year, while protecting nocturnal biodiversity.
Nearly 20,000 streetlights (57% of public lighting) will therefore be extinguished in the streets of Bordeaux.
The choice of places that will remain lit at night was made in consultation with all security and nightlife stakeholders, specifies the municipality, in particular the national and municipal police, ambulance attendants and firefighters.
“
We followed 100% of the requests from all the operators in the Bordeaux area
,” explains Laurent Guillemin, deputy mayor in charge of public lighting policy.
A "suffered" extinction according to the opposition
The main axes, as well as all the districts identified as sensitive will therefore continue to be lit.
The same goes for the hypercentre, where almost all pedestrians in Bordeaux are concentrated at night.
Laurent Guillemin also specifies that the city is not the first to act in this area, because out of the 28 municipalities of Bordeaux Métropole, fourteen cities - i.e. one municipality in two - have already switched off public lighting. night and the remaining fourteen are "
going extinct
" or under consideration.
Read alsoTransport strike in Bordeaux: new disruptions planned for this Friday in buses and trams
This decision to turn off public lighting at night is the third phase of the sobriety plan announced in September by Pierre Hurmic, the mayor of Bordeaux.
During the first phases, around a hundred public buildings as well as the illuminated billboards have already been switched off.
For the opposition group Renouveau Bordeaux (presidential majority), this measure is however described as “
a sudden reversal, a total absence of consultation and a hasty decision to the detriment of the safety of Bordeaux residents and energy sobriety
”.
The group denounces a " sustained
" extinction
and would rather accelerate the deployment of LED lighting.