Pyrénées-Orientales: McDonald’s project definitively rejected in Toulouges | McDonald’s

The case, which lasted nearly two years, is now confirmed. The municipal councilors of Toulouges (Pyrénées-Orientales) had unanimously voted against the project to install a McDonald’s in their town on March 29, notably pointing out that many fast food restaurants already existed nearby.

In the Pyrénées-Orientales, the number of fast food restaurants per inhabitant is among “the highest in the country”, indicated the mayor of Toulouges, Nicolas Barthe (DIV), last spring. For him and his advisors, there is no need to see a new McDo set up in his town, knowing that there are already 16.

A municipality that advocates “healthy eating”

Besides the fact that this McDonald’s restaurant would have been on the 17th^e of the Catalan department, it should be noted that four of them are currently “within a seven-minute drive of Toulouges”, the elected officials denounced at the end of last March, as reported by The Parisian.

The mayor (DIV) of the commune, Nicolas Barthe, had also indicated “that the department has one of the highest rates of fast food per capita in the country”. “We were elected to defend policies that promote organic products, short supply chains, and waste reduction. We are committed to a responsible approach and this philosophy does not fit, in our opinion, with this project”, the mayor had again highlighted during this municipal council of March 29, 2024.

Nicolas Barthe had again insisted on the fact that “municipal policy” was committed to “protecting local businesses and healthy eating”. And if the municipality opposed this project, it was also because of the noise, olfactory and visual nuisances that it would have generated, also pointing out the “atmospheric pollution” that traffic would have caused.

Instead, “a harmonious and sustainable project”

The brand’s managers wanted to set up on the land housing the Nature Innov’ garden center, located near the Toulouges stadium and not far from the college. But the owner of this land reached an agreement with the Perpignan company Born Space, signing a 50-year emphyteutic lease with it, reports The IndependentThe leaders of these two parties speak of “a harmonious and sustainable project”, without revealing more to our colleagues.

In this standoff, which lasted almost two years, the municipality of Toulouges has therefore won the case and the case was definitively ratified at the end of August. The American fast-food chain must finally move closer to Ille-sur-Têt, we finally learn from the regional daily.