You may have seen them, they are being set up in the city center of Tours…The ephemeral wooden terraces are back! Installed at the time of the Covid to allow restaurants and cafeterias to enlarge their outdoor space, the city of Tours allows them again. However, they become chargeable.
A bit pricey…
Stéphane is the owner of a restaurant near the Place de la Résistance. He has rented two parking spaces for the season, which brings him “high visibility, knowing that in summer people want to have lunch or dinner outside. For the moment, it’s Spring, it’s starting to get relatively nice, so it’s nice. Then we’ll put up umbrellas, in the summer, when it’s banging“, he begins.
He still finds the price a bit expensive. “It’s simple, it’s 100 euros per month and per place, so for me it’s 200 euros (for two places).”
Over 7 months, because it’s until October 31, that’s 1,400 euros.
And this, without counting the assembly and dismantling of the terrace by a professional carpenter, which costs him around 650 euros each time, as well as a little more than 500 euros for the purchase of the wood. The seasonal bill almost doubles. “I asked the town hall if there was a possibility of spreading the payment, but no it is not possible below 1500 euros“, he explains, disappointed.
…But concerted, according to the City
The city of Tours indicates that the amount has been set in consultation with the union of restaurateurs, the UMIH, at 10 euros per square meter. It wishes to compensate for the loss of earnings linked to the removal of parking spaces. “Normally the receipts for the City at the level of the parking meter are between 15 and 17 euros per square meter depending on the location, so 10 euros per square meter, this will be the amount on the invoice that we will send to the trader”, explains the deputy to the City in charge of trade, Iman Manzari.
Normally the receipts for the City at the level of the parking meter are between 15 and 17 euros per square meter depending on the location.
Satisfied customers and merchants
Customers are delighted: “First, it’s beautiful and in addition, we sometimes see more restaurants that are badly placed“, explains a client seated at Stéphane, who is also a restaurant owner in the neighborhood.
David, manager of the e-cigarette store just opposite, is not afraid that his clientele will decrease with less parking spaces. On the contrary, he is in favor of these terraces, and he would go even further:
What we need is not more parking spaces. It is a place of the Resistance a little more pleasant, pedestrian, raised, as it could be made place Châteauneuf.
Skeptical motorists
Disappointed on the other hand, motorists, like Marie. “I regularly go down to Tours-centre and we see that there are fewer and fewer parking spaces. I understand, bars and restaurants also have to work.
But we, the motorists, we suffer from it and it is worse and worse on Tours.
For residents, the City assures that it will be particularly vigilant to the noise at night. “Whenever there are complaints from the neighborhood, we will notify the establishments, and this could go as far as removing the terrace authorization.“, explains Iman Manzari.
Bars and restaurants can still apply to the City for an authorization to extend a wooden terrace.