The metropolis wants to strike hard. 120 billboards were removed overnight from January 4 to 5, 2022 from 8:45 p.m. to 3 a.m. and until Thursday, January 5 in the morning in Nantes and in five surrounding towns. This is the first step in a plan to eliminate all advertisement signage
on the majority of the agglomeration Nantes: 70% of the territory in total. In June, after a debate on the place occupied by advertising in the city, the metropolis voted this measure unanimously. Primary objective : reduce visual and light pollution in the city.
Removal of 12 square meter panels by mid-2024
The huge rectangular panels of 12 square meters will disappear in Nantes and in the surrounding municipalities by mid-2024. Advertisements near schools and historic monuments will also be prohibited, and illuminated signs will be switched off between midnight and 6 a.m., in particular those in bus shelters.
And it’s not just the public space that is concerned! The details who have billboards in their garden, and earn some money from this advertising, will also have to part with it by next year. This is the case of Alexandre Lusteau, who has had one of 12 square meters in his garden for 15 years.
A display that earns him 3,000 euros per year, but to protect the environment, he would agree to withdraw it: “The panel was already installed in the garden when we bought the house, and it didn’t bother us at all, he confides. It allows us to get a little extra rent, but we’re in a climate emergency right now, and there’s more to life than having a billboard at home.”
It is not the city that takes care of removing the large posters from individuals, but the JC Decaux company that manages the billboards. The regional director for Brittany and Pays-de-la-Loire Valentin Gourdon confides that there is sometimes reluctance among some individuals, advertising can bring in a lot of money.
Reduce visual and light pollution in the city
The purpose of this measure for the Nantes metropolitan area is to reduce light pollutionimprove the living environment and make energy savings. Three-quarters of these billboards are in Nantes, mostly at the entrance to the city. But all the neighboring municipalities are also concerned: Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire, Saint-Herblain, Bouguenais, Orvault and Rezé. During the year 2024, throughout the Nantes conurbation, 1,000 panels will disappear.
The measure was part of campaign promises of the mayor (PS) of Nantes, Johanna Rolland. The metropolis gives up a third of its advertising revenue, it received a total of around 11 million euros per year. “A budgetary choice at the service of the climate”confides the mayor of Nantes to our colleagues from AFP.
For Valentin Gourdon, regional director of JC Decaux for Brittany and Pays-de-la-Loire, the dismantling of the billboards does not mean the end of advertising in Nantes and its surroundings : “The fee (3.5 million euros editor’s note) that we pay each year to Nantes Métropole will be reduced significantly, but the service addressed to Nantes residents will remain the same, he explains. We have ensured that the remaining furniture retains an appropriate and qualitative mesh throughout the metropolis.” Valentin Gourdon specifies that the dismantled signs will be refurbished and installed in other cities.
