The prefecture authorized an increase in helicopter rotations and the installation of helipads when this did not fall within its competence.
One more step towards peace during the summer for residents of the Gulf of Saint-Tropez. On October 28, the administrative court of Toulon canceled the decrees of the prefect of the Var which regulated the overflight of this zone by helicopters. The court also condemned the state for “his failure to enforce the law”giving reason to the associations of local residents.
For more than 10 years, associations have been mobilizing to denounce the noise pollution caused by the increase in the traffic of top-of-the-range tourist helicopters. Three of them, the Association for the Defense of Residents of the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, Halte Hélico and the Association for the Safeguarding of the Gassin Site had taken legal action against prefectural decrees regulating the movement of helicopters in the communes. from Ramatuelle, Saint-Tropez, Grimaud and Cogolin. The plaintiffs also challenged the fixing by the prefecture of a list of so-called helipads “responsible”private land capable of accommodating helicopters within the limit of 20 movements per day and 200 per year, knowing that a take-off and a landing count as two movements.
In a judgment dated October 28 reported by AFP, the Toulon administrative court agreed with the associations, considering in particular that the prefect exceeded his powers by taking measures which led to an explosion of thefts. It also considers, on the contrary, that it has not played its role of regulator against noise pollution. The court therefore held that the State had committed a “fault (…) in its failure to enforce the law”, when his services had been alerted “noise pollution and the dangers associated with the incessant overflight of helicopters using “responsible” helipads”.
For the court, “the prefect did not have, under his police power, the power to regulate these helipads in any way other than by prohibition”. He was therefore “incompetent to regulate helipads by creating a category of so-called “responsible” helipads”, which are not provided for either by the civil aviation code or by the order of 6 May 1995 relating to aerodromes and other locations used by helicopters. The court also singles out the representative of the State for having granted new authorizations for helicopter movements to helipads that have already reached their quotas or to helipads “located in the immediate vicinity”. The jugement
gives the example of two helipads having totaled 1329 annual movements each, far from the 200 authorized.
“For us, this is a very big victory. This is the first time that the State has been condemned in this case”, welcomed Jean-Claude Molho, from the Halte Hélico association, for whom “nothing is resolved for next season”. Contacted by AFP, the prefecture had not yet reacted Friday evening.
In July, after a first failure, the residents had already obtained the cancellation of a prefectural decree which authorized 48 daily rotations instead of 40.
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