600 Chimes and a Petition: A French Town Votes on Whether Its Church Bells Can Ring at Night

• A newcomer to Ceyrat, France, complained about church bells chiming every half-hour through the night
• The complainant said they had counted 600 chimes
• A counter-petition in support of the bells drew about 300 signatures
• The mayor put the question to a household vote and promised to obey the result

In Ceyrat, a town in France’s central Auvergne region, the church bells became a matter for a public vote. A wire report carried by the Jamaica Observer said the dispute began when a newcomer complained that the bells chimed every half-hour around the clock. The newcomer said they had counted 600 chimes and found them far too loud.

The complaint became a petition, and the petition split the town. A counter-petition to keep the bells ringing gathered about 300 signatures. Mayor Anne-Marie Picard called a vote, to run from Monday to Friday, on one question: “Are you in favour of the church bells stopping at night?” If the answer was yes, the bells in the Boissejour district would fall silent between 10:00 pm and 7:00 am.

Christophe Serre of the town hall said: “Each household will have the right to a vote and the mayor will obey the result.” The count was to be made with a bailiff present.

The report placed the row in a wider French pattern of tension between rural traditions and people from the cities with second homes in the countryside, who can have “a lower tolerance for some of its sights, smells and sounds.” It recalled Maurice the cockerel, whose dawn crowing annoyed holiday-home owners in western France so much that they went to court, and lost.

Anyone buying a house near a church, in Jamaica or abroad, should take note. Bells, amplified worship, all-night services, crusades and funerals are part of the character of many neighbourhoods, and the church was often there first. Before you buy, visit on a Sunday morning, on a weeknight and during a holiday, and ask neighbours what the sound is like. Returning residents who have got used to quiet suburbs overseas should do this in particular. For churches, the Ceyrat vote is a reminder that good relations with newcomers are worth maintaining before a complaint turns into a petition.

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