Since April 28, a municipal decree has prohibited access to certain highly popular sites for walkers, cliffs or beaches threatened with landslides. Among the sites, the famous “man hole” tunnel which crosses the cliff, in which recklessness are regularly trapped when the tide goes up.
A few meters away, Christoph and Lukas, young German tourists, approve the initiative.
“It’s a bit frustrating, but we understand why,” said one of the two young people. However, this observation does not dissuade him from jumping a collapsed barrier to take a picture of himself on a promontory, one meter from the void.
“The cliff has fallen”
By threatening offenders of a fine of 135 euros, the more the reimbursement of the costs incurred for the emergency services, the town hall hopes to preserve the layout of the coasts but also the safety of people: each year, deadly falls are to be deplored on the site.
“A recurring evil”, deplores Bernard Le Damany, first deputy at the town hall of the city, “so much so that two groups had to be rescued there two days apart in recent weeks”.
“In places, on 50 centimeters or 1 meter, you have vegetation, but below, it’s hollow, because the cliff has fallen, and people do not realize it,” explains Mr. Damany.
If erosion strikes the entire Norman coast, the cliffs are particularly exposed due to the influx of tourists who aggravates the pressure on the site.
Increased surveillance since the new municipal decree represents an additional pressure on the small numbers of the town, which makes its police patrol along the coast, alongside the gendarmes and the two cupguards recently engaged by the city.
But the real additional cost weighs first on the emergency services: “An intervention of firefighters must be around 900 to 1,000 euros, and a helicopter intervention, we are on 2,500 to 3,000 euros per hour”, recalls the elected official.
To the point that the rescuers plan to raise the costs invoiced to the offenders for the rescue operations, said the departmental fire and rescue service (SDIS) in Seine-Maritime.
The municipal decree is intended to be maintained, indicates the municipality, which says which says it wants to bet on “pedagogy” to preserve the site.
“To repress is good, but the most important thing is that people become aware of the risks”, reasons Bernard Le Damany, who would put well on “humor”.
“If you find yourself stuck in the tunnel from the hole to man, you do not risk death, on the other hand I would tell them that with seven or eight hours waiting for the low tide, you will find the long time!”
