“On the right, you have number 37, and in front, number 144”. As soon as you enter Busseau-sur-Creuse, one of the 38 villages of Ahun, numbering inconsistency houses are obvious. A situation that will soon change for the approximately 200 inhabitants of the village: with the arrival of fiber in October 2023Mayor Thierry Cotiche has started a major project with La Poste: the street census from Ahun.
Indeed, to be deployed, the very high-speed Internet network requires complete addresses, i.e. precise GPS coordinates. But for Thierry Cotiche, it goes above all “greatly facilitate the daily life of people who work at home: the postman, who is not necessarily a postman dedicated all year round, but also the home help services, the delivery people… And especially the emergency services”, insists the chosen one. _”During the day, they can call the town hall to tell them the location of a house, but in the evening, when the town hall is closed, they work on sight. The time they spend looking” lpatient’s home “So time is wasted, and there are lives at stake,” he says.
Facilitate the work of the emergency services
And in Busseau-sur-Creuse, the inhabitants are rather for the initiative. Guy, for example, believes that this “could help” the delivery men to find his house. “Busseau is not mapped on the GPS, so people who come from Limoges for example, when they arrive, they go around in circles.” And even in “trying to guide them”telling them for example “at the mailbox, you go down the small street… It’s complicated”, abounds Chantal, the companion of Guy. The couple must therefore sometimes do 500 meters to recover “the completely lost delivery man” or go to La Poste d’Ahun, or even Guéret “if it’s a big package” to retrieve it.
But certain nevertheless have some reservations on this census of the streets of Ahun. If he thinks the “naming is a good thing”Laurent Le Mestre, manager of the Le Viaduc restaurant in Busseau-sur-Creuse, points out that he will have “at least 30 changes of address” to perform. “With our suppliers, on our website, at the administrative level with all the invoices … without forgetting the business cards. So it would be good to have a consultation tool”pleads the restaurateur.
Updating your address will be free
The mayor of Ahun, Thierry Cotiche, precisely foresees organize public meetings with the inhabitants, when the diagnostic phase of La Poste, the first stage of the study carried out on addressing in Ahun, will be completed. “The objective is to have a complete address in September or October” 2022, in order to respect the schedule for the arrival of fiber in the town, specifies the elected official. The town hall will also pay 5,000 euros for the plates of streets and houses.
La Poste will also participate in these public meetings with Ahunois, in particular to explain to them the administrative procedures to be carried out. “We provide pre-franked address cards, to be sent to your bank, to EDF or another organization… And the formalities related to the gray card are also free”, explains Karim Ben Rais, addressing referent at La Poste for New Aquitaine. In other words, the inhabitants won’t have to pay a penny to update their address.
Ahun is not not the only municipality concerned by imprecise addressing. In 2021, some 2,000 routes in Creuse, or 21%, were not numbered. The department also has 60% of lanes without type. La Poste is currently working on addressing about fifteen Creuse municipalities.