On January 8, 2025, the mayor of Chapet (Yvelines), Benoît de Laurens, received information that the department was working to establish a reception village for unaccompanied minors. The objective is to set up in this town of 1,350 people more than twenty bungalows for around a hundred young people, as well as a sports field. Except that the mayor of the town was never notified before this date. “I had seen that soil studies had been carried out a few weeks ago without the municipality being notified,” he denounces to 78 Actu.
Because of this decision by the department, Benoît de Laurens also had to abandon a real estate project of around a hundred social housing units on which he had been working for years with a developer and the public land establishment of Yvelines. The mayor believes that the department's decision has been made “in hussar fashion, without the slightest consultation” and deplores an act ” intolerable “. Benoît de Laurent believes he was “humiliated” in this sequence.
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“Delusional and inconsistent project”
On the other hand, the deputy general director of the Children, Families and Health division of the Yvelines department believes that it is difficult to find a good balance and that the community is facing a difficult situation. “All mayors have good reasons for this to happen elsewhere than on their territory. But we, these young people, cannot keep them in the hotel. Hence the urgency to act,” believes Sandra Lavantureux.
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Benoît de Laurens intends to continue to oppose this “delusional and inconsistent project” and to ask for help, particularly from local environmental associations. Following a meeting organized by the mayor on January 14, a petition was also launched.
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