In Saillac, a peaceful Corrèze town of 223 inhabitants, the sawmill created in 1910 has always been part of the landscape.
“It has been there for four generations.
When we need a piece of wood, we will use it,” summarizes a resident.
But a local resident, complaining about the noise caused by the company during the day, recently sowed discord in the town by launching a petition and filing a complaint for the nuisance caused.
The reaction in the community was almost immediate.
Residents fearing the complete disappearance of the sawmill wrote a counter-petition which quickly collected 1,500 signatures.
“Bursting people who are working makes us angry.
It is the only company in the town.
If she leaves, we have nothing left,” summarizes a signatory of the counter-petition.
Tossed between the two camps, the village mayor, Olivier Laporte, displays his embarrassment.
“It’s a very complicated story which has reached the president of the department and the sub-prefect.
I support the sawmill but I am obliged to take into consideration the complaints of certain citizens, notes the chief magistrate.
I am here to soothe and reconcile.
I'm sure we'll find a compromise.
»
Far from being “Parisians who recently came to settle in the town”, as one rumor claims, the plaintiffs have on the contrary been there forever.
“The lady in question had never complained for ten years but she is ill and is going to leave her house to the children.
She knows full well that this property will be unsaleable due to the noise from the sawmill.
His close neighbors have just inherited and are in the same situation,” says an expert on the file.
Last Thursday, the mayor received the complainant again in his office but no solution was found.