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In the green lung of Coutras, at a place called Drouillard, the inhabitants are ulcerated.
On February 28, a municipal letter informed them of Free's intentions: the telephone operator plans to install a pylon nearly 39 meters high nearby.
“
We are a quiet little town in the countryside with deer wandering around.
Nobody wants that wart!
It is an enormity!
A monstrosity!
“, protests Michel Marque, 68 years old.
In the Girondin hamlet, where you know your neighbours, one word is on everyone's lips: resistance.
Gathered together, the fifty or so local residents concerned circulated a petition which presented more than 200 signatures.
Here, the Free Mobile project is considered as "
ridiculous
" and "
incomprehensible
" as it is "
absurd
" and "
dangerous
" for the environment: it plans to settle on a wooded plot.
However, according to these Coutrasiens, the place is far from being a white zone (even if the fiber has not yet been installed) as suggested by the operator in the summary of his project intended to contribute to the coverage of the common in 3G and 4G.
"
My friend Damien has his phone at Free Mobile, he says he picks up very well
", thunders Michel Marque.
Him, subscribed to the ADSL offer of the operator and he warns: “
If they do it, I abandon them!
»
When you look for the countryside, you feel like a prisoner with an antenna near your home
Jérôme Cosnard, mayor of Coutras
Soon a sixth relay antenna?
"
We already have five antennas within a radius of five kilometers
", annoys Laura Ramos, who stimulated this local uprising alongside Damien Platel and Michel Marque.
Returning to settle on the lands which saw the birth of her grandfather after the 1st confinement in 2020, the deputy mayor in charge of the environment does not budge: “I defend my natural
heritage so that my children can know the environment in which I grew up.
»
To preserve its forest, a Coutrasian landmark for Sunday walks, the collective opposing the establishment of relay antennas in Drouillard is venturing into legal territory.
In a letter addressed to the operator, he invokes ministerial decrees and laws to require the pooling of Orange pylons with Free Mobile or, failing that, "a
new infrastructure erected in the immediate vicinity
(existing antennas, editor's note)
if reasons imperatives made this sharing impossible
”.
Contacted several times, Free Mobile has not been able to answer our questions for the moment.
These requirements, the mayor of Coutras, Jérôme Cosnard supports them.
He admits, however, that he has few levers to support the "
outcry
" of the Drouillard.
It is impossible, for example, to use the precautionary principle to divert the project despite the very real fears of local residents who, if they do not make it their main argument, are worried about the waves emitted by these machines.
And above all, a deep desire to preserve “
their little corner of paradise
” one hour from Bordeaux.
The city councilor is aware of this: “
I understand that people are worried.
When you look for the countryside, you feel like a prisoner with an antenna near your home.
»
