The mayors demand that Elisabeth Borne be able to regulate the “dark stores” themselves

The elected officials of the big cities, mostly from the left, ask Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne in a letter to be able to regulate “dark shops” and “dark kitchens” themselves, these premises dedicated to the preparation of deliveries that are they have multiplied since 2020. The mail obtained by AFP must be sent on Friday or Saturday to the head of government, it was specified in the entourage of a signing mayor.

The first signatories of the letter are the socialists Anne Hidalgo (Paris), Benoît Payan (Marseille), Martine Aubry (Lille) and Cédric Van Syvendael (Villeurbanne), the environmentalists Bruno Bernard and Grégory Doucet (Lyon), Anne Vignot (Besançon) , Pierre Hurmic (Bordeaux) and Jeanne Barseghian (Strasbourg), the communist Patrice Bessac (Montreuil), and two elected LRs, the president of the Métropole du Grand Paris Patrick Ollier and that of the Ile-de-France Mayors Association Stephane Beaudet .

“opaque kitchens”

Embodiments of “fast trade” that allow products to be ordered online and delivered in a few minutes, “dark shops” and “dark kitchens” have multiplied in the heart of metropolitan areas, thanks to successive lockdowns and curfews. The former store everyday consumer products while the latter are kitchens not attached to a restaurant, only intended for the delivery of dishes.

At the center of the controversy, a draft decree that, in a provisional version unveiled by the Parisian deputy for urban planning Emmanuel Grégoire, would allow these premises to be considered places of commerce and crafts, provided they have a collection point for the public .

These modifications “would put the municipalities that we represent at risk of seeing these establishments multiply in our territories, which, even with a reception desk, would continue to be, however, opaque warehouses or kitchens,” the signatories maintain. The exécutif avait promis jeudi de “poursuivre la consultation” avec les prenantes parties, et le minister délégué à la Ville et au logement Olivier Klein s’est dit favora ce que les maires puissent “interdire, ou pas, un dark store dans a neighborhood”.