Cages lack any Christmas chair

A wire grid has been placed around a public bench to prevent homeless from drinking alcohol and sleeping on it. Photo / AFP

A French mayor has been accused of a shameful lack of Christmas spirit after banishing homeless people from the city centre by putting cages over public benches.

Critics said putting up the cages on Christmas Eve suggested a total lack of empathy from Xavier Bonnefont, the 34-year-old right-wing mayor of the southwestern city of Angouleme, for those without a roof over their heads.

Joel Guitton, the deputy mayor, defended the decision, saying the benches were "almost exclusively used by people who consume alcohol on a regular basis". He said local traders had complained that the drunken tramps' threatening behaviour was bad for business.

The regional daily newspaper Sud Ouest alleged the Champ de Mars square housing the benches had become the scene of regular fights between homeless people, often provoked by drugs and involving dogs. One stall owner said, "It's a good move to stop drunks disturbing public order."

But reaction was swift on social media, with critics calling the measure brutal and others demanding protests or for the cages to be torn down, with or without municipal consent.

"What a shame. This is not France," declared Guillaume Garot, a former Socialist MP and Bonnefont's political opponent.

"Next year the cages will be electrified," one commentator quipped on Twitter, next to a picture of Bonnefont, whose swift political rise has earned him comparisons with Nicolas Sarkozy, the tough-talking former French president.

Now the mayor has hastily ordered the cages to be "temporarily" removed, saying they would return soon filled with pebbles to reflect the square's "mineral aesthetics".

"I regret the works started on Christmas Eve," he conceded.

London mayor Boris Johnson was dragged into a similar controversy earlier this year. A luxury development in Southwark installed anti-tramp spikes near the entrance, prompting the mayor to intervene and demand their removal.

-The Daily Telegraph