“I thought it was a joke.” Laurent Brosse, mayor (Horizons) of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines), was surprised to discover that his town had obtained a distinction in the list of “Ugly France”. Awarded at the end of October by the Paysages de France association, which fights against visual pollution, Conflans owes this “prize”, “Pub nurseries” category, to a succession of advertising panels installed in private gardens along the N 184.
Far from the image that the capital of inland shipping, at the confluence of the Seine and the Oise, usually conveys. “I find it ugly,” comments Christian, observing the famous signs. “But that has nothing to do with the city, that…”. “I can’t tell you that it’s beautiful, I find it really very ugly,” says Sandy. “There are far too many signs and I find that a shame, because there is vegetation behind and we could certainly do better.” “But it’s not representative” of the rest of the city, she also believes.
“The mayors of the municipalities concerned (…) were informed of the rankings,” explains the association in its press release. Paysages de France also reminds that “this is not a ranking of the ugliest cities”, and specifies: “It is (…) in no way for our association to stigmatize this or that municipality ( …) but to highlight damage to our landscapes. In most cases, the mayor can simply remedy what distorts these everyday landscapes by using his police power to enforce the Environmental Code as in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.
Precisely, these signs could soon disappear since the mayor of Conflans explains that the regulations on local advertising were recently modified in the Grand Paris Seine Oise urban community, and that he issued a report two weeks ago against these signs. . “This new regulation allowed me to issue reports of violations of the regulations,” explains Laurent Brosse, “and also to transmit them to the public prosecutor. So what has been possible to do for some time was not possible before. »
