From the November episode, political memory has retained François de Canson's little sentence about eels. With his feet still in the mud, the mayor was furious that it seemed more important to him to save human lives than eels.
A rant in front of the microphones and cameras because, a few days before the second flood, the water police had asked him to stop the emergency work launched on the Pansard after the January disaster… on the grounds that the eels had to be protected. “It created a national buzz but you can imagine my anger at this administrative straitjacket.“, still enrages the elected official a decade later. If the anger is still so strong, while water has flowed under the bridges, it is because inertia still seems so heavy to him.
“When lives are at stake, you have to know how to make decisions. (…) The first measures that we took and which fell within the framework of so-called 'emergency works' took place six months after the bad weather. The second measures known as 'structuring works', subject to a very long and administratively complex regulatory constraint, could only begin in October 2024!”.
A decade of patience that he explains by cringing at the timetable for structuring work. They will not be finished until fall 2027 at best!
To launch the 23 hydraulic developments which have appeared since October 2017 in the Flood Prevention Action Program (PAPI) validated by the approval committee, we must face a “obstacle course“.
Obstacle course
After the transfer of competence to the MPM intercommunality, we had to wait, among other things, for green lights from the Regional Health Agency, the National Council for Nature Protection and the environmental authority. We then had to wait to obtain a danger study and the result of a public inquiry before submitting the file to the State's investigating services in May 2019 to obtain environmental authorization.
“Incomprehensible!”
“It was only on June 27, 2022 that a prefectural decree authorized us to carry out the work, three years later. Here again, an administrative burden that is incomprehensible for elected officials and residents, the mayor annoys. This is where we measure the administrative straitjacket and the need to be able to seat all the instructing services around a single table with a common objective: to avoid going around the services and wasting time.“.
Especially since when the lights are green, we are still far from the finish line. It is now necessary to take control of the land to release the backhoe loaders on the ground. A step that is not a formality. After the administrations, we must discuss with the private sector.
With the prefectural decree of Declaration of Public Utility under the arm and the calculations of a surveyor, it is necessary knock on the doors of the sixty owners of the land where the developments are to be carried out. A new obstacle where general and particular interests sometimes clash.
“98% of land is still negotiated amicably“appreciates the mayor who only mentions marginal resistance.
Fall construction site only!
The final subtlety that is difficult to understand when looking at, for example, the images of Valencia: that of seasonality. To limit the impact on flora and fauna as much as possible, construction equipment will only be able to come into action in the fall! Objective of this measure, which is part of the protection of biodiversity: to disturb wildlife as little as possible during its reproduction period.
“So, when I see all these constraints, I tell myself that in the end, the little sentence about eels has changed nothing!“, sighs François de Canson.
He also regrets that the National Assembly did not accept his idea of changing the law. It aimed to enable municipalities to undertake work intended to “prevent a serious and urgent danger ” without the submission of requests for authorization or the declarations to which they are subject, provided that the prefect is immediately informed.
“But if the administrative straitjacket remains as tight as ever, little sentence after little sentence, we still observe that now, the State is more willing to facilitate“.
