During the last municipal council, Monday, the left once again put on the table the €7 million contracted by the SPLBT and guaranteed 50% by the City.
This is one of the political soap operas of recent months. During the municipal council meeting of April 25, elected officials (without the support of the opposition…) had validated the guarantee by the City, up to 50%, of a loan of €7 million over fifteen years by the local public company of the Thau basin (SPLBT), contracted with the aim of “to ensure the cash flow necessary for investments linked to the Public Service Delegation (DSP) for parking”Two months later, the municipal opposition has not finished demanding answers on this loan which it continues to judge “opaque”.
Christophe Clair reacts to the flurry of questions
The subject came back on the table last Monday, when the council was studying an amendment to the DSP of parking passed with the SPLBT. It was a question of integrating the construction of an additional access ramp “in tunnel” to the Aristide-Briand car park, from rue Barbusse (cost of €1.5 million), and with the aim, in the long term, of pedestrianizing the area. Other modifications also had to be added: those of the development taxes of the Hugo and Briand car parks (€500,000), as well as the monstrous lawyers’ fees (€70,000) linked to the procedures initiated on the Briand car park.
Véronique Calueba (Together for Sète) was quick to question finance assistant François Escarguel (Vincent Sabatier, deputy for roads but administrator of the DSP parking, unable to be present during this debate, Editor’s note). “In the Midi Libre of June 6, Christophe Clair, the director of the SPLBT, announced a modification of the initial public market of 43%, going from €10.4 million to €14.5 million for the Aristide-Briand works. Confirm to me that these works were not planned in the first call for tenders.” On this subject, it is Christophe Clair, in a letter sent to our editorial staff, who formulates a response: “No percentage has been announced. The tunnel work was not planned in the first call for tenders. The grantor (the City) wished to integrate this work. The SPLBT being subject to the order code public and the pre-studies having been carried out, it will launch a call for tenders for works at the appropriate time.”
Véronique Calueba machine-guns the majority
Véronique Calueba continued. “Legally, paid parking on roads is an administrative public service. The revenue should be paid into the municipal budget. However, they are always paid into the SPLBT budget.” If François Escarguel specified, on this subject, that the recipes “are well integrated into the municipal budget”, The SPLBT confirmed, for its part, that revenue from on-street parking is “fully reversed” in the city.
“SPLBT, SA Elit, it’s totally opaque!”
The flurry of questions did not stop there. While, during the last council, the left-wing opposition had already asked what the famous €7 million loan from the SPLBT, 50% guaranteed by the City, was going to be used for, “You told us that it was for the construction of the two new parking lots at the ZAC East entrance”continues Véronique Calueba. “However, it turns out that it is not the SPLBT which is carrying out this call for tenders. For the construction of one of these car parks, it is the SA Elit. We are mixing everything up, it is one total opacity between the SPLBT and SA Elit! What will the SPLBT’s loans of €7 million guaranteed by the City be used for? Because the parking works for the ZAC East entrance in the North sector are worth €1.5 million? Where will the rest go?”
“Ensure the cash flow necessary for investments linked to the parking public service delegation”
The finance assistant having been caught off guard on the question, it was Christophe Clair who, a posteriori, developed an answer again: “In the construction file for the ZAC East South Bank approved in September 2020, a parking lot is planned, with control being provided to the City of Sète or its concessionaire. SAElit being the concessionaire of the ZAC, it launched the study contracts in October 2021 and the works contracts The council in June 2023 approved the deliberation of the amendment integrating this parking lot into the DSP. In accordance with this amendment, the SPLBT will ensure the financing of the studies and works. .”
SAElit having therefore transferred the study contracts and works contracts to SPLBT, “it is indeed this one that is building and financing the Silo car park.” As for the €7 million loan, Christophe Clair repeats: “It was contracted to provide the cash flow needed for investments linked to the parking public service delegation.” For this reason, “it is well linked to the construction of the Silo car park.” To be continued in the next episode…
