The Bordeaux Administrative Court on Friday deliberating on a village in the Dordogne, Montferrand-du-Périgord (160 inhabitants), which refused the installation of electricity Linky meters, ordering them to pay 1,200 euros in court costs .
Stéphane Lhomme, a member of the group “Stop Linky”, which opposes the deployment of these so called “smart” meters, denounced “the fact that the Bordeaux Administrative Court is the only one in France to punish the towns that took municipal decisions against the Linky meters condemning them to extremely heavy financial penalties for small towns ” .
This group has identified 268 municipalities, Caen and Saint-Denis, having taken proceedings against these counters, which give rise to some concerns about privacy and health because they emit electromagnetic waves, which Linky refutes.
Ten procedures
A dozen interlocutory proceedings were held in France, resulting in the suspension of proceedings pending judgment on the merits. Only two villages situated in the Dordogne, Montpeyroux and Montferrand-du-Périgord, have so far been ordered to pay 1,200 euros in court costs, according to Mr. Lhomme.
Dordogne Prefecture, absent at the hearing Monday unlike Enedis company (formerly ERDF, a subsidiary of EDF responsible for deploying the Linky meters), had assigned emergency before the Administrative Court of town, to which it had been claimed 4 000 Euros for reimbursement of legal fees.
“We expected the suspension given the judgments that have been made in recent months, but it was hoped it would be a symbolic sum”, said a councilor Montferrand-du-Périgord, Patrice Delègue.
“Montferrand is disappointed”
The suspension of deliberation in particular address the fact that “the council makes a decision that only the mayor is empowered to take” , says Delègue, who represented his village at the hearing. “They attacked on a fault our expression ” , he regretted.
In a statement posted on its Facebook page, the municipality of Montferrand summarized:”Montferrand was sentenced (…) Montferrand will pay (…) is Montferrand disappointed” .
For the town, this sentence of 1,200 Euros are “intended to intimidate the towns that would build a more legally sound decision than ours” .
1200 euro fine
“These are smaller cities that continued in emergency large have the means to defend themselves. It really is a strategy of intimidation”, Mr. Lhomme said.
Friday Enedis declined to comment on the court decision.
Montferrand regrets that these “1,200 Euros, as in any budget (eg family) will penalize the most qualitative shares of the common (educational projects for schools, cultural associations and library)”.
