The small Norman town of L'Aigle, populated by some 8000,30 inhabitants, has been waiting for the event every year for more than fifty years, at the Ascension Bridge. This Thursday will open the funfair of the "Four Days", which should attract about 000,<> people, an event disproportionate for the size of the city. This year, it has particularly reacted because of the urban redevelopment of part of the city, with more trees and pedestrian paths, which therefore leaves less room for rides.
In fact, the city has asked the fairground to be less numerous on one of the main arteries, the avenue de Lattre de Tassigny, and to also settle in the adjacent streets. The avenue is one of the newly developed axes next to Place de Verdun, which will soon host a new theater and cinema. After threatening to establish themselves according to last year's plans, and to damage the new plantations and furniture, the fairgrounds concluded an agreement with the prefecture on Thursday, April 11. This compromise involves the temporary planting of seven trees on Avenue Lattre de Tassigny in order to install more rides, confirms the prefecture of Orne to Le Figaro.
City centres need to be redeveloped so as not to die.
Jean Sellier, President of the Community of Communes
Cut poles
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An agreement has been reached, we hope it will be held, "says this Monday Jean Sellier, president of the Community of communes of the Pays de L'Aigle, as the rides begin to arrive at the beginning of the week. The elected head of the association of 32 municipalities in Orne is satisfied with this compromise, while he feared for the good holding of the event. This Monday evening, however, he deplores the installation of fairground on the Place de Verdun, which have cut the poles that restrict access to large vehicles.
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The community of communes has worked on the development of the Place de Verdun and its surroundings, where a new theater has just been released. Inevitably, this causes disturbances, the fairgrounds lose huge concrete places, "says Jean Sellier. "City centres need to be redeveloped so they don't die. Can we prevent cities from innovating only for four days a year?, defends the elected official who keeps in mind the ransacking of the 2013 festival. Ten years ago, work had been undertaken on the Place de l'Europe and the Place Boislandry, the fairgrounds had devastated everything: the trees and the bases of work. We redid everything with very mineral places, as they wished.
»Jean Sellier says that the mayor of L'Aigle has been on this issue for a year and has spoken at length with the protagonists to find the solution that could suit everyone. The elected official says he understands "the economic importance of fairgrounds": "We are not against the funfair, which is also an attraction that interests young people a lot, but everyone must adapt, because the rides are also becoming bigger and bigger." The president of the Community of Municipalities, which is in charge of urban development, concludes that he "needs to rework the consultation, to find a lasting solution.
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