Le Figaro Nantes
To discover
Follow all the news of the city of Nantes
Spring returns, temperatures rise, the sun reappears.
Something to make you smile... or not.
Near Nantes, the summer heat of last summer made the inhabitants of La Chapelle-sur-Erdre live through a real nightmare, due to their proximity to a new platform transforming green and food waste into compost.
Since the start of operation in May 2022 of this Terra Ter platform, many neighbors located within a perimeter of around 500m around have endured disgusting odors against their will.
To the point of having to cut their VMC during a heat wave, no longer hang up their laundry outside, have lunch indoors with a stuffy nose or even leave their home during the day to avoid these unpleasant scents.
If the nuisances have decreased this winter,
“Since January 1, we have had 33
reports of odors”
, underlines Jean Iemmolo, spokesperson for the collective “
Respire à La Chapelle
”, this Tuesday March 28, in front of more than a hundred residents gathered in a municipal hall. from the community.
That evening marks the first face-to-face gathering of the victims of these olfactory nuisances.
“
And Now?
can we read on the slide show broadcast during this meticulously organized meeting.
Of course, what mode of action to consider to move this platform.
More than a hundred residents gathered on Tuesday March 28 in a municipal hall.
LT/Le Figaro
Read alsoCompost smells near Nantes: operators have until March 31 to make them disappear
New deadline: June 14
The collective set up in November is beginning to tire of the additional time granted to the Compost In Situ cooperative.
Initially, during a presentation of the project in 2019, they were told that the platform would not release any odor.
While the opposite happened three years later, the inhabitants pointed to irregularities relating to the construction of the site, such as “
the establishment less than 200m from the dwellings
”.
They ended up obtaining a schedule of corrective actions from the town hall designated, surprisingly to their greatness, as "
mediator
" in the conflict.
Supporting the project, the municipality is also responsible for mediating between disgruntled residents and operators.
The work schedule normally called for the odors to end at the end of March.
Finally, on March 14, the prefecture issued a formal notice ordering SCIC Nord Nantes, owner of the land, and Compost In Situ, to correct the irregularities before June 14.
Under penalty of paying daily fines.
The institution does not have the power to close the site according to the comments reported by the spokespersons of the collective after a meeting organized on March 20 with the secretary general of the Loire-Atlantique prefecture.
“
Either we wait and tell ourselves that the prefect is going to do things, or we go to court.
But we have no money and we have to raise funds
, ”begins Jean Iemmolo towards the assembly, despite the glimmer of hope found after the prefectural meeting.
7000 euros are necessary according to the calculations.
“
The judge has the authority to close the company
,” continues the man who has already advanced, with others, between 400 and 500 euros for, among other things, the sending of registered letters.
The additional money collected will be used to finance the first legal actions through the intervention of a lawyer.
7000€ to raise
“
There are shenanigans that must be denounced.
We won't be able to do it skillfully.
A lawyer will know
”, reacts a participant in the room.
“
We were deceived by hiding the truth from us.
There is this legitimate anger that is expressed
”, abounds another, also in favor of speeding things up by going through the justice box.
It is finally this solution retained at the end of the evening, on condition of collecting the necessary sum from the residents and even beyond.
This would be equivalent to 70 euros per household.
Questioned at the exit, the households seem to support it, like this couple who lives less than 200m from the platform and also suffers from noise pollution: “we are going to give 100€
”
.
Among the other actions, the municipal opposition, present at the meeting, plans in particular to seize the ethics officer of the metropolis to warn him of potential conflicts of interest in this file.
Another avenue proposed by an informed citizen: find out about the use of a mediator of the Republic, whose functions of conflict resolution between the administration and users are now attributed to the defender of rights.
Read also“Green funeral”: a Macronist MP wants to authorize “human composting”
Be that as it may, through these acts, citizens also want to raise awareness among their peers so that their history "does
not happen again elsewhere
" (in metropolitan France or in France), warns a Chaplain who had warned, even before construction, potential nuisances that would occur.
Especially since the local residents, some of whom have their own compost at home, are not anti-ecological.
“
You made a project that was supposed to be a win-win a lose-lose project
“, lamented the collective to the mayor of La Chapelle-sur-Erdre.
A potentially winning project for the image of the valued city, for the farmers benefiting from the compost and for the inhabitants proud of their innovative municipality.
Currently, given the anger of some, this is not the case.
Especially since they now fear seeing their real estate lose value.