The first McDonald’s restaurant on the island of Oléron opened its doors on Thursday, after five years of arm wrestling with an environmental mayor who opposed the establishment for security reasons, but without mark the end of the legal battle, according to the town hall.
There were few people for the opening which wanted to be discreet. The opening was originally scheduled to take place before the summer, but management had delayed the event.
A five-year tussle between the town hall of Dolus and McDonald’s
In December 2018, the town hall of Dolus had issued the building permit for the restaurant, ordered by the Poitiers administrative court and then the Bordeaux administrative court of appeal.
For years, the environmental mayor Grégory Gendre, a former member of Greenpeace, has opposed the project, issuing building permit refusal orders, notably citing an “accident-causing” risk due to insufficient road access to the restaurant.
The town hall appealed in cassation, and the Council of State “will have to judge whether or not access to the restaurant is accident-prone while the population of the island quintuple in summer “, indicates Me Julien Marceau, lawyer of the town hall.
A new complaint for extension without authorization envisaged
According to Grégory Gendre, a “hydraulic risk” is added to the road risk. The restaurant being installed on a site which knew several floods since the summer, “due to the artificialisation of the soil, a saturated rainwater network “. The mayor of Dolus agrees that this is not only due to McDonald’s, but the restaurant he says is building a parking lot extension that will make the problem worse. He indicated that he intended to continue the sign for extension without authorization.
“There remains the decision of the cassation in the 1st quarter, the opening to the penal of a new business for the construction without autoristaion for the new parking lot and then following the report of yesterday and the deposit to the gendarmerie this morning, fact that there is a non respect of the safety report in particular on the number of employees present at the same time and then more serious, the hydraulic malfunctions in the area affected by the recent heavy rains.
Grégory son-in-law, mayor of Dolus-d’Oléron
In addition, two residents have also brought legal action, finding the restaurant not compatible with the planning code of the island of Oléron.
This Friday at noon, there was no crowd at lunchtime in the restaurant whose entrance is monitored by a security guard to avoid any incident.
For Grégory Gendre, this is not a fight against a particular brand. “The question of the brand is a false debate” he insists. For him, the problem comes that this plot is too small to accommodate a project like this and that the regulations aimed at improving the environmental standards adopted by the municipality must apply to this area of the municipality as to the others.
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