For two weeks in Orleans, it had been dark in the streets at nightfall. The city had decided, as a cost-saving measure and on an experimental basis, not to turn on public lighting at all, except for the busiest central streets, the tram route and sensitive neighborhoods.
The measure, launched on May 16 and scheduled until August 31, did not last long, however. This Thursday, May 25 in the evening, the municipality announced that it was throwing in the towel. The reason? An outcry from the inhabitants which led Mayor Serge Grouard to change his mind.
Incomprehension
“Since this measure was in place, elected officials on the ground were constantly being stalked by disgruntled residents. We have also received many letters. People went to complain to local town halls and we saw the messages multiply on social networks, ”sums up the communication service.
Among the reasons most often invoked, a feeling of insecurity and incomprehension for all those who circulate in the evening in streets plunged in darkness.
The city will therefore turn on the light. The streets will be lit again from dusk until midnight. On the tram route, the lights will go out between 1:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m., and in the liveliest streets and sensitive neighborhoods, the lights will go out at 3 a.m.
Orléans therefore returns more or less to the system that was put in place in the fall, when the city, like many others in France, decided to reduce public lighting in an attempt to contain the increase in its bill in the face of the energy surge