A week after taking office, the new prefect of Ille-et-Vilaine and Brittany had booked his first visit to Saint-Malo. Amaury de Saint-Quentin came to take the temperature of the territory on Tuesday November 5, 2024, by meeting the mayor and president of the Agglo, Gilles Lurton, economic players, the security forces of the sector, farmers… Here is what he learned from these exchanges.
After this day of discovery of the Saint-Malo region, what do you remember?
A recurring topic throughout the day: housing. With a direct consequence: the issue of employment is often conditioned on the ability to find housing in the region. I was surprised to discover that young professionals were having great difficulty finding accommodation and were moving away from activity areas. We must find very concrete and very rapid solutions to remedy this. For example, the mayor of Saint-Malo explained to me the real solidarity lease system, which allows low-income households to access real estate ownership. This is one of the levers which, coupled with others, can help us keep young people close to attractive areas.
One of your challenges will be the fight against drug traffickers. Is Saint-Malo, with its port as a gateway, more exposed?
No more and no less than any other average city. We want to eradicate deal points. Large cities are most affected by the problem. But they no longer have exclusivity. We are vigilant in any area which constitutes a point of entry: ports, train stations, airports… This is one of the reasons why 21 additional officials have been assigned to the Saint-Malo border police.
On the territory, one of the other challenges is the fight against submersion…
Whatever happens, with global warming, we must adapt. We are going to be faced with changes. I want to be very educational, to explain our organizations without frightening.
