The most original municipal by-laws
The top 7 unusual municipal bylaws
– Ban on getting sick…
– Ban on dying…
– Municipal distribution of Viagra…
– Mosquitoes are forbidden to fly over the town…
– Obligation for the sun to appear…
– Dogs are not allowed to bark
– Bears are not allowed to roam
Municipal decrees that are sometimes eccentric, but other decrees have been taken in response to a sometimes complicated and urgent situation. By-laws that by their originality put the spotlight on their problems
Some more detailed examples
> Lack of rain
Faced with a lack of water, a mayor in the Vendée orders the rain to fall
The sun will have to put an end to its “roasting” actions, or “the rain will have to make its return slowly but surely”, this is what the mayor of the commune of Angles in the Vendée says in his order. With his decree in hand, Joël Monvoisin, SE mayor of Angles, is going to war with the weather. With the high temperatures and the lack of rain in his town, he has taken a very official step, but one that is only symbolic. “We had a very hot and heavy summer. The spirit is to make a little humour”, he comments.
The decision is valid until next October, and the municipal police will do everything in their power to ensure that it is respected. The inhabitants, for their part, are divided on this initiative. “Frankly, I thought it was quite funny, a bit of humour in this world doesn’t hurt,” replied one resident. “There is clearly something to be done, but I’m not really sure whether the Mayor’s decree will change anything,” admits another.
> No more doctors in the commune
So in Ychoux, it was forbidden to get sick! And now there are three doctors
Ychoux is a small commune in the Landes region that is not lacking in charm and, above all, in character. Four years ago, the former mayor and his constituents saw their only two doctors retire. The candidates for the succession were not jostling each other at the door, pushing the mayor to multiply the initiatives.
The inhabitants still remember the original decision he finally took at the time, which drew national media attention to Ychoux. “He had issued a decree prohibiting people from being sick”, says one of them, “it was clever”. It was a joke, of course, but also a wake-up call.
Even if the decree was never applied, even if it is claimed here that no one was ill, it made a mark and drew the attention of several practitioners to the case of Ychoux. Eight applications were received and three general practitioners settled in this commune of 2,200 inhabitants.
> “Prohibition to die” because there is no more place in the cemetery!
In Cugnaux (Haute-Garonne, 17,771 inhabitants) in 2007, as in Lavandou (Var, 5,759 inhabitants) in 2000, it was death that was attacked by the municipal councillors, who “forbade any person who did not have a burial plot to die on the territory of the municipality” and threatened that offenders would be “severely sanctioned” for their actions. The two mayors wanted to protest against the overcrowding of their cemetery.
> Municipal distribution of Viagra
Last May, Jean Debouzy, mayor of Montereau (Loiret, 599 inhabitants), issued a surprising decree to warn of the closure of one of the town’s classes. The decree announced the distribution of Viagra pills to couples aged 18 to 40 “in order to give them every chance of conception and thus preserve the commune’s school”. He now assumes his media buzz: “The objective was to make a noise. And the gamble paid off, as we were honoured by four television stations and 22 newspaper articles in France, not to mention the international media!
He is also convinced that the publicity surrounding this affair has enabled him to save his class for the next few years: “People have heard about Montereau and we have had several families move here since then. From 72 children, we have gone up to 85 for the start of the next school year and 90 are planned for the start of the 2020 school year. We are even going to develop a hectare of land at a very low price to continue our seduction campaign,” he explains with determination.
Bibliography
Tf1: arrêté insolite (Tf1: unusual municipal by-law)
Journal des maires: top 7 des arrêtés municipaux insolites (Journal of Mayors: top 7 unusual municipal by-laws
