October 6, 2024 at 2:30 p.m. by Nicolas Terrien
On the verge of resignation, the mayor of Selles-sur-Cher denounces a deleterious atmosphere in her town, after the installation of several dozen caravans in different places. Elected officials and citizens feel abandoned by the State.
In Selles-sur-Cher, history repeats itself. Caravans and vehicles have been parked for several weeks at the exhibition center, but also in the Cher-Sologne economic zone. “This has a very strong impact on the activity of artisans and traders” deplores Stella Cocheton, mayor of the city. “The monthly flea market can no longer be held on the fairgrounds, and it is no longer possible to park to go to the Thursday market on Place De-Gaulle.” More serious, the councilor underlines the climate of very strong tension between the inhabitants and the members of the traveling community. It must be said that all dialogue seems broken: “We no longer have an interlocutor, and the elders in the community are no longer listened to by the young people.” And this situation “explosive” has been going on for several weeks now.
altercations “more and more violent”
This Friday, October 4, a security system was put in place around the multidisciplinary health center which overlooks Place Charles-De-Gaulle. The aim was to inaugurate this equipment which supports the installation of young doctors. A sign of the tense climate in the city? Stella Cocheton no longer counts the examples of incivility, even altercations between locals and travelers for weeks. “At the cinema, you have teenagers who come in and make a mess. Then it takes hours to put everything back in order.” There, it is the deputy mayor Grégoire Bert who tells the story on his Facebook page : “Every afternoon of the week, around ten young people take over our media library and create complete chaos.” Another example: “The direct resident of the fairgrounds, municipal councilor, sees droppings thrown at his gate and his house“. The young elected official explains that the altercations are numerous and increasingly violent.
Restoring the rule of law
And to make matters worse, the elected representatives of Selle feel abandoned by the State. Still on his Facebook page, Grégoire Bert directly calls on the prefect, explaining “to have reached [le] beg to take the alerts seriously and above all to act to avoid a tragedy that awaits us.” In front of the press on September 27, the prefect of Loir-et-Cher recognized the illegal nature of these installationsbut also its limited capacity for action due to non-compliance with the departmental plan for welcoming Travelers which notably provides for a high-traffic area in the south of Loir-et-Cher, which is currently non-existent. Xavier Pelletier also encouraged owners of occupied land to file complaints, and assured that he will continue to mobilize the police, as he has already done on several occasions.
Stella Cocheton ready to resign
However, Selles-sur-Cher has a reception area, but it is today closed because it is degraded. “At the end of July, [ils] illegally connected to the electrical transformer which ended up catching fire” explains Stella Cocheton. The outcome would therefore be to reopen this area very quickly, except that Enedis announces a delay of six months. There is also the idea of forced evacuation, but to go where? “They will return four days later, as was the case in August and early September.” A game of cat and mouse that exasperates elected officials to the brink of breakdown. “I’m 50 years old, I’m an employee, I wanted to get involved… The easy solution would be to throw in the towel!” : the mayor even claims to have already written her resignation letter, certain to be followed by other elected members of the council. While to this day, the situation remains deadlocked, and anger is growing.
