They won’t win. On Friday, the administrative court of Lyon dismissed the association Greenpeace France and the parents of pupils of the Michel Servet school by rejecting their request for compensation. A request made to repair the damage they believe they have suffered due to the exposure of their children to the pollution impacting the establishment. But in its judgment, the court found that the state was not responsible and had committed no fault. Neither the city of Lyon, nor the metropolis.
The collective and the association had also called on the authorities to take measures to reduce the impact of this pollution, in particular by restricting car traffic within the Croix-Rousse tunnel adjoining the school.
“Plurity of Factors”
If the court observes that worrying levels of pollution were noted in the courtyard of the establishment, it considers that this is not the case in the rest of the school group. “It does not appear that the nitrogen dioxide pollution inside the premises would have exceeded the set thresholds”, nor that “the regulatory values set by the environmental code have been exceeded”.
It also indicates that “the particularly high nitrogen dioxide pollution observed at the exit of the Croix-Rousse tunnel on the Rhône side”, and “more particularly in the north courtyard of the Michel Servet school”, results from a “plurality of factors”. Car traffic is only responsible for 40% of pollution. “The remaining 60% is attributable on the one hand to the particular topography of the site marked by the presence of the Croix-Rousse hill and the circulation of the winds, and on the other hand to the heavy traffic congestion on the quays of the Rhône”, he argues. And to conclude: “The correlation between the pollution observed within the Michel Servet school and the car traffic in the Croix-Rousse tunnel is not systematic”.
