Paris Mayor promises new car ban on right bank

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has vowed to issue a "permanent" decree banning vehicles from driving along certain roads on the right bank.

Ms Hidalgo told Liberation that she would issue the order to pedestrianise the routes in the next few days, despite a court overturning a previous ban last week.

The city’s administrative tribunal cancelled the closure of a 3.3-km stretch of the Georges-Pompidou expressway along the Seine River on procedural grounds.

Ms Hidalgo said that the new decree would take 'into account the recommendations of the administrative court', and would related to "the defence of heritage and tourist interest" rather than environmental concerns.

The Mayor said that there the original decree was overturned because of "a problem with the way environmental law is interpreted in France".

She said the original decision had been taken in September 2016 with the full knowledge and cooperation of the the Elysée and the police commissioner who, she said, were 'convinced that the banks should not be reopened to car traffic'.