2023-08-07 13:04:03
The administrative court of Poitiers decided to partially suspend the decree issued by the town hall of Angoulême which prohibited “the seated or lying position when it constitutes an obstacle to the circulation of pedestrians and to access to buildings bordering public roads”a-t-on appris by court orderMonday, August 7.
According to the court, this prohibition “was too general and insufficiently precise and, therefore, disproportionately affected the freedom to come and go and the freedom of assembly” with regard to the expected benefit for the maintenance of public order. The judge in chambers thus suspended the application of the decree “pending the decision to be rendered on the merits”.
The town hall attacked the “abusive occupation” of public space
The League for Human Rights (LDH), residents and associations fighting against poor housing had defended, on August 1, the suspension of this decree deemed “anti-precarious” taken by the LR town hall of Angoulême, during a hearing before the administrative court of Poitiers.
Read also: In Angoulême, a controversial decree to drive out the marginalized and the homeless from the city center
In its decree published on July 11 regulating “abusive occupation of public spaces”the town hall of Angoulême prohibits “the seated or lying position when it constitutes an obstacle to the circulation of pedestrians and to access to buildings bordering public roads”. No « station debout » neither “when it manifestly hinders the movement of people, the convenience of passage, safety in the ways and [les] public spaces ».
The LDH denounced “an attack on the freedom to come and go, to occupy the public domain as one wishes, all the more so when it comes to people [dont] the makeshift home is the street”, believes his counsel, Me Marion Ogier. Because, for the applicants, it is indeed the “marginal” who are targeted by the text.
“Nocturnal noise, public drunkenness, aggressive begging… all these offenses are already provided for in the penal code. And in the documents in the file, we are systematically told about security, but only the prefect is competent” in the matter, points out the lawyer, for whom the text has “just for the purpose of getting rid of a population that society deems inconvenient”.
The assistant for prevention and public security of Angoulême, Jean-Philippe Pousset, ensured that the text is not a decree “anti-begging”is “anti-SDF”. “It is only a tool to find a peaceful management of public space”Who “concerns only 6% of the area of the city”he explained, pointing “nearly 400 handrails” lodged with the municipal police for three years and availing themselves of the support of traders. The City’s lawyer, Me Alexandra Aderno, had insisted on the “anxious climate” et “the exponential increase in troubles” in the city center.
The Charente city had already experienced such controversy in 2014, when it had fenced public benches at Christmas. In addition to Angoulême, similar decrees have already been taken by several cities in France, including La Rochelle, in June, and have often been challenged by the courts, as in Saint-Étienne or Bayonne in recent years.
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