For the second year in a row, the small ski resort of Puyvalador (Pyrénées-Orientales), located at an altitude of 1,700 m about a hundred kilometers from Perpignan, will not open its slopes.
The “total absence of dialogue” between the municipality and the delegatee, associated with a drop in attendance at the station, climate change, increasingly strong competition as well as a “lack of skills and resources” will have reason for this public service delegation (DSP), notes the Court of Auditors in its report published on February 2.
“When we signed the leasing contract in 2019, the tool was supposed to be in working order,” recalls Julien Sabarthès, the former delegatee.
“However, this was not the case: the thirty-year inspection missions of the installations had not been carried out and the artificial snow network was not operational.
I should have had a report made and the station would never have opened.
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Instead, Julien Sabarthès had 257,671 euros of work carried out.
Work “that can be analyzed at first glance and in part as falling within the scope of action of the municipality within the meaning of the public service delegation”, according to the Court of Auditors.
Despite this, “these expenses have never been reimbursed by the municipality”, she observes, “generating a persistent disagreement since then” and the decision by the delegatee Destination montagne not to open the resort in winter 2022- 23, leading to a termination of the DSP by the municipality for serious misconduct.
A slate of 250,000 euros
Nearly twelve months later, even if he finds the financial jurisdiction still too conciliatory with the municipality, Julien Sabarthès still considers himself satisfied.
Supporting report, he intends to relaunch the procedure before the administrative court, which is currently at a standstill.
Because it is before the administrative court that the delegatee and the municipality are now confronting each other over this slate of more than 250,000 euros claimed by Destination montagne.
In the meantime, could the municipality of Puyvalador, which has not responded to our requests, consider continuing to go it alone to operate its station?
No, believes the Court of Auditors, which recommends “seek a strategic alliance with the territory’s institutional partners”.
For example, a possible entry into the capital of the SPL Trio which operates the Porté-Puymorens, Formiguères and Cambre d'Aze stations mentioned by the mayor of the town, Daniel Marin.
A possibility that the departmental council of Pyrénées-Orientales, majority shareholder of Trio, is not considering "for the moment", indicates the community to Parisien-Aujourd'hui en France, the current objective being "first of all to stabilize activity at the three existing stations.