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Paris cafes, bars and restaurants to reopen to outdoor space row

<span>Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images</span>
Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images


Paris is gearing up for a battle for public space after the city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, said cafes, bars and restaurants would be temporarily allowed to set up tables on pavements and in parking spaces when they open this week.

Coronavirus lockdown measures are being eased further on Tuesday, with food and drink establishment opening across most of France for the first time since 14 March. However, because Paris remains “orange” on the country’s Covid-19 map, meaning the virus is still circulating, bar, cafe and restaurant owners have been told they can only serve customers outside on terraces and with strict physical distancing and protection measures in place.

“We have adopted a plan to help bars and restaurants for at least six months from March until the end of September,” Hidalgo told Le Parisian.

“One of these measures is the free occupation of a part of space in Paris. It could be pavements where possible or parking places. We could also close certain roads to traffic for some weekends to allow bars and restaurants to have more space.”

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The establishments will be required to register their request to use the public space online and sign up to a 10-point “charter” of good behaviour.

Along with physical distancing and protection measures, bars, cafes and restaurants must close at 11pm; limit noise nuisances; avoid blocking pavements to pushchairs and people with reduce mobility; not install electrical equipment, or use plastic cups; and ensure the terraces are kept clean, particularly of cigarette ends.

Hidalgo said city hall wanted to start with a “principle of trust”, but warned if establishments broke the charter they would be fined and their permission to use temporary terraces revoked.

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The Socialist mayor, who is up for reelection in the second round of municipal elections, postponed from March until 28 June because of the coronavirus, rejected accusations of electioneering from her centre-right rival Rachida Dati.

“I have a responsibility not to wait until 28 June to act. There are hundreds of jobs involved,” Hidalgo said.

The mayor has also said the extra 50km (31 miles) of cycle lanes - nicknamed “coronapaths” – installed during the health crisis to encourage bike use may become permanent. During her six years in office, Hidalgo has made reducing the number of private cars and air pollution a key element of her mayoralty.

“We don’t want to go backwards … a new way of thinking is necessary,” she said.

The centre-right newspaper Le Figaro said the moves were part of a new global “war for public space” sparked by Covid-19 that would pit “pedestrians v diners, cycles v cars”.