The smell of shellfish bothers the neighbors: in conflict with the restaurant, the town hall of La Grande-Motte gives it a counter-advertisement on its doorstep

Un panneau devant le resto pour avertir les clients…

Chez Tetel, a mussels and chips restaurant renowned for nearly 40 years, is in conflict with the municipality, which is pulling out all the stops…

War has now been declared between the town hall and the restaurant “Chez Tetel”. The subject of discord between this establishment specializing in shellfish, and in particular mussels, established in La Motte du Couchant since 1986, is waste collection. Large volumes of mussel shells that are not without an active nuisance for the neighborhood. 

On Friday, August 2 at 3 p.m., municipal services installed an information sign in front of the restaurant terrace, located in the Couchant district: “Chez Tetel refuses to organize its own waste collection as required by regulations”, is specified on it.

The risk of seeing the terrace removed

"The Agglomeration has retained a ceiling of tonnage absorbable by its services. The establishment remains well above this ceiling and is therefore directed towards private service providers to collect its waste. Three service providers were offered to it by the Agglomeration services from April 2024 in order to best support it in this change of process. However, faced with the additional cost that this represents for him, he did not react to successive warnings, explains the city.

The sanction incurred is the removal of the terrace right. In response, Stéphane Tetelbom, the manager, has already taken advice from a lawyer.

 "This results from a misunderstanding between the services of the City, the Agglomeration and the restaurant. The new regulations are particularly complex to put in place, explains Claire Lerat, lawyer in Montpellier. "At the time when the town put up the sign which designates my client for popular vindictiveness, he had been in compliance for a week thanks to a contract signed with the Mediterranean Cleaning Company Nicollin. My client is of very good will and will do whatever is asked of him, adds his defender. 

In the middle of the summer season, everyone hopes for a quick resolution of the situation.

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