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President of the Carnot district council, Alexandra Marraud has strong experience on a human level, but considers that neighborhood councils are not sufficiently distinguished from municipal services.
For Alexandra Marraud, president of the Carnot district council, Agen has many qualities. This dynamic mother of two children works in insurance and returned to her city of birth with her husband, Agen too, “by choice, not by obligation or by default”. This is one of his battle horses: that tomorrow, we settle on Agen by choice and envy.
Photo – Laurana Cazeneuve
“In the past, we had a strong identity, but which was stretched … But it is clear that unfortunately, the situation has deteriorated,” she said. “The state of the roads is worrying, as is the question of security, we have a problem of cleanliness in large part due to incivility, the city center has lost its attractiveness … It is high time to act.”
A limited power of action?
From its point of view, a neighborhood team must bring better living and well-being to local residents. “The neighborhood presidents have a role of developer. I started as a neighborhood councilor. The role of president is the same by extension.”
How is this role of developer illustrated? Alexandra Marraud evokes multiple domains. Ecological transition, intervention in the fight against isolation, link between residents and municipality … “Whether the presidents or the members of their team, we have several faces. We can be a parent, active, retired, and our functions lead us to touch all the strata of the population. This contributes to giving us a broader vision.”
But where the rub is that the power of action sometimes lacks. Because you have to distinguish between neighborhood council and municipal services. “With the advice, we believe that we must be a bonus to improve things, but our duty is not to replace the town hall,” she explains. “I have doubts about the functioning of neighborhood councils as it is … in the current state of things, without a better spectrum of action, I do not really see a future for the teams of the neighborhoods. I wonder about their future. Despite everything, this remains a great human adventure, and I would like to warmly thank the teams of the Carnot and Town Hall teams, without forgetting the interlocutors of the life service. committed. “
A halftone experience
She deplores not having seen certain things advance on the city level. “The roads, the security, the cleanliness. As a woman, a mother, I do not have this impression of seeing great changes … It may be I who am too impatient, but I do not observe results on certain points to improve, hence an experience of a half-tone president.”
If she does not intend to engage in a second term, she still has some tracks to bring to her successors. “Either we are fatalistic, or we act and we have the courage to take matters into your own hands,” she poses. “For the coming mandate, it would be good to create a post sheet on the role of neighborhood advice. Redefine the powers of each other, perhaps refocus on our role as developer. At the start, we start with great ideas, but we have to face the constraints. Anyway, we must remain optimistic and want to make things happen, while studying the field of expectations.”
Three sites linked to each other
The Carnot district has the particularity of being bordering, and sometimes works jointly with its neighbors, including Town Hall. “We acted together for the repair of Rochambeau Street,” she says. Another flagship site in the district concerned the Place des Rights of Human, which has made a facelift. His rehabilitation was co-funded by the Town Hall district council. Ray of Raymond, nearby, will soon experience a new face too. “We made the choice to focus the work on an area, our three major sites were linked to each other.”
Supervised by technicians, the members of the Carnot council must comply with technical and budgetary constraints, with a sum of 375,000 euros allocated to each district, covering the period of the mandate. “It’s a bonus, but it doesn’t allow us to meet needs, and we want to bring better,” she says.
