Le Figaro Nantes
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Nantes-Atlantique will not beNotre-Dame-des-Landes": this sentence is the first of a five-page document sent to Clément Beaune, the Minister in charge of Transport, by the 24 mayors of Nantes Métropole. In it, local elected officials - who all met at a meeting on Tuesday - list their "strategic expectations" for the modernisation of the airport infrastructure, which is to be the subject of a new call for tenders by the end of the year, after the previous one was abandoned, as revealed by Le Figaro.
According to them, a "priority" is emerging. That of "population health" which "must be at the heart of everyone's concerns". They are therefore calling for the rewriting of the operating restriction order imposing a curfew between midnight and six o'clock in the morning - which is regularly violated by airlines - "to strengthen its scope". It should be noted that on this point, the elected representatives are not asking for an extension of the curfew hours, even though it has been requested by local residents or some mayors of the municipalities closest to the airport. In addition, they would also like to see a reinforcement of soundproofing systems through a change in legislation and an increase in financial aid. The implementation of measures to better quantify the impacts of noise or fine particle pollution on local residents is also advocated.
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Co-construction
The elected representatives, who write that they reaffirm the "need to have a modern airport, a gateway to the Great West and an opening to the world, with a view to balanced regional development", are keen to ensure that it is part of "the climate trajectory carried by the territory". Thus, they want "work to bring the platform into compliance with the Water Law regulations" to be undertaken even before the designation of the future concessionaire. They are also calling for the deployment of electric charging stations in car parks and "airside electrification works to allow alternatives to the use of auxiliary aircraft power engines".
Clément Beaune returns to Nantes
During his last visit to the prefecture of Loire-Atlantique on 2 October, to "assume" the State's decision to abandon the current call for tenders for the modernisation of Nantes-Atlantique, Clément Beaune promised to return to discuss with local elected officials within a month. According to Presse Océan, the calendar has changed a bit. The minister is expected to return to Nantes on 16 November.
Another expectation of local elected representatives is that they want to be more involved in the issue and the decisions taken through "innovative governance arrangements". "We are waiting [...] full transparency and clarity in dialogue," they write. In fact, they are particularly waiting to hear from the state what will happen to the 400-metre extension of the runway. Initially planned, it would be called into question according to the latest announcements by the Minister of Transport during his recent visit to Nantes.
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Better connection with Paris airports
For the establishment of a cap on air traffic - requested by some local elected representatives - the common position of the 24 mayors does not go that far. They merely refer to "traffic forecasts compatible with health and environmental issues" without further details.
Finally, in the document, local elected representatives refer to the "connectivity of the territory". In this regard, they are in favour of improving rail links with Paris airports, whether in terms of "timing", "securing journey times" or "via an increased night train offer". They also support the development of a metropolitan RER, the "financing" of which they would like to be included in the next State-Region Plan Contract, as Clément Beaune has pledged to do.
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Rant
After the publication of the letter co-signed by the 24 mayors of the Nantes metropolis, Stéphan Beaugé, the mayor of Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu, a town near the airport that is not part of the community, went out of his way. Criticising a "bad restructuring project for Nantes Atlantique" analysed as a "saturated airport site", the mayor is angry with his colleagues. "What fly has bitten those who only yesterday had a political and economic ambition for western France? How can we support a dossier from the last century that does not meet the requirements of ecological planning?" he asks.
Denouncing pell-mell the non-respect of the curfew or the "maintenance of a polluting airport next to the largest lowland lake in Europe", he regrets that the inhabitants of the department are "the turkeys of the farce" in this case. "A beautiful unanimity... without the expression of the population of the Loire-Atlantique. This is a very strange democracy," he said in a final charge at the end of a letter sent to the media.