While we are still waiting for the modifications made to the PNR Livradois-Forez charter, other regional natural parks are in full revision of their charter. Moto-clubs, organizers, endors, hikers, be vigilant in your regions.
The alarm signal came from Auvergne in early March, when Alexandre Astier the president of the Livradois Moto-Club discovered in the public inquiry of the new PNR charter of the Livradois-Forez PNR, an attack in good standing against motorized leisure, even containing threats for sports events well established in the region. The president then remembered that his club had already fought fiercely against this kind of attack fifteen years ago and obtained winning. His call to challenge these future regulations then spread as a trail of powder on social networks. In two weeks, the Facebook page totaled more than 500,000 views and in the process, a petition brought together more than 1,200 signatures. The public inquiry collected for its part more than 3,400 opinions for the most part unfavorable.
Traffic on rural roads is a right. © JM Pouget
The local press has also taken up the subject and finally Stéphane Rodier, the president of the park and his vice-president Myriam Fougère received Alexandre accompanied for the occasion of its League president, Vincent Rigaudias and the legal director of the French motorcycle federation, Oscar Dupond. At the end of this amicable meeting, it was agreed that the FFM would make proposals for modifications to the Charter in order to remove the ambiguities and negative prejudices towards motorized sports. The specialists then looked into the texts of the Charter and updated several articles that can be considered as discriminatory or defamatory, before offering a legally more compliant version of the guidelines of the charter “relating to the circulation of land vehicles”. A letter signed by the president of the FFM and the president of the Auvergne League was attached to the observations and proposals for modifications to the Charter and all deposited just before the closing of the public inquiry.
At the same time, the codever (collective for defense of green leisure), for its part, transmitted a voluminous file of remarks and amendments to the text of the Charter. It remains for the Auvergne bikers to wait for the conclusions of the public inquiry and then the validation of the charter by the inter -ministerial consultation to be able to scream victory. The problem may however arise elsewhere, because questionable measures in these new charters often come from the injunctions of the prefectures, from the National Council for the Protection of Nature, the Environmental Authority or the Federation of Regional Natural Parks in France. Their guidelines all aim to restrict, or even prohibit the practice of motorized leisure activities and push the municipalities to make prohibition orders to circulate on the paths.
Some regional natural parks are revising their charter. Be vigilant in your region. © JM Pouget
Even if it takes place over several years, the “participative and collaborative” approach claimed by the parks for the drafting of their charter is often summed up with meetings between permanent union permanent, state services or assimilated and associations of nature protection and elected officials are sometimes put before the fait. Few organizers or motorized sports or leisure associations to be involved in this long process. The Vaucluse Departmental Motorcyclist Committee has nevertheless succeeded in becoming a partner of the PNR in Mont-Ventoux. Five years after the approval of this park, he is still waiting for the start of the consultation meetings planned for the charter as a priority measure at 3 years!
Vigilance is therefore recommended vis-à-vis the charter revisions, starting with those currently in the final phase before the public inquiry, in Regional natural parks of the Ardennes, Armorica, Avesnois (public inquiry from April 25 to May 26)Balloons des Vosges (consultation until May 30)from the Orient Forest, Haut-Jura, Périgord and the Pre-Alps of Azure. The French Moto Federation and the Codever are there to support you in the steps to be taken. The future in the Recreation and Motorized Sports Region is at stake. Auvergne mobilization is therefore an example to follow.
With Pierre Devaux
