A wind power project retaken in 2017 by the prefecture of the Somme in view in particular of the proximity of Australian memorials of the Great War, should finally see the light of day after a court decision, we learned on Friday from the ministry and from opponents of the project.
The association Contre vents et marchés, opposed to this project, was warned by the prefecture that the Ministry of Ecological Transition would not seize the Council of State after the decision of the administrative court of appeal of Douai giving reason to the bearer. of the project, its president, Nicolas Perney, told AFP, confirming information from
Courrier Picard.
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The ministry "
usually considers that the presence of places of memory is not incompatible with wind covisibility and has therefore not entered the Council of State
", confirmed to AFP the office of Minister Barbara Pompili. The prefect had seized in May the services of the ministry "
so that an appeal in cassation is formed
" against the judgment, dating from March, of the Court of Douai, according to a letter sent to the association that AFP was able consult. The prefect underlined therein to consider that this court decision “
distorts the facts of the case and is vitiated by an error of law
” in matters of town planning code. "
We are disappointed, annoyed
", but "
we are not going to give up
», Reacted Nicolas Perney, evoking remarks in Tahiti of the Head of State«
who is from the Somme
».
Emmanuel Macron then advocated “
case-by-case pragmatism
” on wind projects.
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The project, led by the company Les Vents de Picardie, provides for the installation of eight wind turbines in Bayonvillers, Wiencourt-l'Équipée, Marcelcave and Lamotte-Warfusée, near the Australian memorials of Hamel and Villers-Bretonneux. In April 2017, the prefecture refused to authorize it, considering among other things that it “
undermined the Villers-Bretonneux memorial because the wind turbines located 6.5 km away are extremely visible and significant from the memorial tower and that they would contribute to eliminating the quality of the landscape, which is strongly linked to the memory of the battlefields
”. "
The Australian government does not wish to comment on the decision
" of the Court "
and the decision of the French government
"On this wind project, reacted to AFP the Sir John Monash Center, which traces, next to the memorial, the history of Australians on the Western Front.
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According to the vice-president of the Hauts-de-France regional council, Christophe Coulon (LR), the Region intends "to
seize the State again to express our discontent
". "
The minister is not even guarantee respect of memorial sites like this one
that should be protected in the name of the memory of the combatants, those who gave their lives for our freedom"
,
he laments to AFP. Seized by the company, the administrative court of Amiens had first confirmed the position of the prefecture.
