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A clear result after a troubled debate.
The project to build a swimming pool in the south-west of the Nantes conurbation will have caused waves on Friday during the metropolitan council.
If it was voted by a large majority - 78 votes out of 92 - the subject created a stir regarding the method used.
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To offer a breath of fresh air to the mayors of several municipalities who were floundering in the meanders of tight budgets to finance such equipment, Nantes Métropole came to the rescue by declaring
it “of metropolitan interest”
.
The community has decided to take charge of the project management and operation of the site which should be built in Bouaye.
Amount of the operation: 10 million euros.
A choice contested by some mayors who have not benefited from this support in the past, when others have denounced a break in the fair treatment between municipalities.
“Force passing” and “49-3 Nantes”
This is the case of Alain Vey, the various right mayor of Basse-Goulaine.
Referring to a "historic"
deliberation
and a
"forceful passage"
, he recalled that the swimming pool in his town (shared and financed with Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire) had been built
"without any participation from the metropolis"
despite a request in this sense.
“The inhabitants of the cities who currently finance their swimming pool will therefore unfairly pay for another, in another territory”
, he reproached.
In its wake, Véronique Dubettier-Grenier, the various right-wing mayor of Carquefou, criticized a decision which
"generates disparities between the municipalities"
of the territory and would tend to break the
"principle of solidarity"
within the metropolis.
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Marie-Cécile Gessant, the various right-wing mayor of Sautron, regretted the absence of a
“tour de table of the situation of all the municipalities of the metropolis”
before the current project was validated.
Sandra Impériale, the various right-wing mayor of Bouguenais, spoke of a
"49-3 Nantes"
and castigated a project carried out in favor of the
"metropolitan left".
According to her, an extension and modernization of the swimming pool of her municipality could have met the expectations of neighboring municipalities.
The latest attack was carried out by Rodolphe Amailland, the LR mayor of Vertou.
Reproaching a
“political clientelism”
leading to a lack of equity between the municipalities, he also pointed the finger at the site chosen, namely a wooded park.
"We are swimming in the absurd"
, he snapped.
"Lamentable manipulation"
So many criticisms demolished by several socialist and environmentalist mayors of the municipalities concerned by the new swimming pool project.
Denouncing the remarks and the attitude of their colleagues, they regretted the analyzes made while continuing to hammer home the interest of this equipment.
Johanna Rolland, the president of Nantes Métropole, specified that
“discussions”
and
“working groups”
had taken place on this project upstream of the deliberation voted on Friday.
Laure Beslier, the PS mayor of Brains, expressed the
“transparency”
of the municipalities involved as to
the “financial impasse”
in which they found themselves to finance the desired equipment.
“We were going to fail, we were doomed to tinker
,” traced Fabien Gracia, the environmentalist and citizen mayor of La Montagne.
As for Jacques Garreau, the mayor of Bouaye, where the swimming pool will be located, he denounced a
"lamentable manipulation"
and a
"rough maneuver"
about the trees that will be cut down for the site:
"These are cultivated pines mature trees that would have been slaughtered whether there was a swimming pool project or not"
.
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After the validation of the project, Johanna Rolland, welcomed a
"clear and massive"
vote in favor of a
"historic decision".
For the president of Nantes Métropole
, “this swimming pool project is also the expression of the solidarity of the Métropole vis-à-vis the smaller municipalities, whatever their political sensitivity”.
