SOf the 110 members, 90 were present this Friday, May 31 at the Gua rural home. Proof that the annual meeting is a meeting awaited by Mayors for the Planet who have a lot to do with the environmental transition. Food, biodiversity, energy, water, waste, mobility… the mayors of small towns are on all fronts, sometimes helpless to deal with the multiple injunctions and the thousand…
SOf the 110 members, 90 were present this Friday, May 31 at the Gua rural home. Proof that the annual meeting is a meeting awaited by Mayors for the Planet who have a lot to do with the environmental transition. Food, biodiversity, energy, water, waste, mobility… the mayors of small towns are on all fronts, sometimes helpless to deal with the multiple injunctions and the administrative mille-feuille of regulations.
This is what pushed Paul-Roland Vincent, mayor of Bourgneuf, to found the association in 2019. “I was elected in 2014 and I had lots of desires for the environment,” says the elected official. But I quickly realized that I was alone without the engineering that large municipalities benefit from. » The association’s core target is the municipalities of between 300 and 1,000 inhabitants in Charente-Maritime, which have been joined by some from Charente since last year.
Charente-Maritime: collective solar energy from Lucioles
After Puilboreau, Les Lucioles, a cooperative society of collective interest active in the La Rochelle area, is working on the creation of small photovoltaic power plants in Dompierre-sur-Mer and Périgny, and is carrying out a more ambitious project in Aytré involving 850 housing units.
When to invest?
The theme of this fourth annual meeting was renewable energies. A notion which falls within the framework of the national policy of carbon neutrality by 2050 and elected officials from small towns are sometimes perplexed to know which solution is best suited to their territory and their budget. “You never know when and for what you need to invest,” continues Paul-Roland Vincent. Solar, wind, pellets, geothermal… it’s not a question of wasting the municipality’s budget. »
We move forward thanks to feedback from others, we find sheets on each subject
A subject that Patrice Brouhard, the mayor of Gua, knows well. “To heat our care home, I first thought about a wood boiler but it was complicated in terms of assistance. Then I studied geothermal energy but it cost 280,000 euros, so too expensive for us. Finally, we opted for photovoltaic panels but we had to battle with the Architect of Buildings of France because the church was close. » The mayor is relieved but admits that the road was long and he is pleased to have joined the association for the help he finds among his peers. “There are no technicians in Mayors for the Planet but we are moving forward thanks to feedback from others, we find fact sheets on each subject. In fact, it is a common sense network. »
Dylan Andrieux
A field trip was organized in the afternoon to the Nieulle-sur-Seudre school. Its extension was carried out with maritime containers!
Field visit
After the interventions of experts and institutions who addressed the subjects of regulations, financing and methods linked to renewable energies, the members went to Nieulle-sur-Seudre in the afternoon. They visited the school extension made from shipping containers. Heated by geothermal energy for ten years, the building was a pioneer and still serves as an example. A field visit which may have given ideas to mayors who have had to deal with galloping climate change for several years. “In 2014, I spent money to tarmac the schoolyard. In 2024, I am asked to remove it because of the heat produced. We have to adapt…”, concludes Patrice Brouhard with fatalism.
Information on lesmairespourlaplanete.fr
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