IIt was due to open its doors at the start of the 2025 school year. Ultimately, it will never see the light of day. The college project in Beutre, requested by the municipality of Mérignac in 2017, was abandoned by the Department of Gironde, forced to make choices after the announcement of state budget cuts for communities. This establishment was to accommodate around 700 students, coming from the Beutre district, Mérignac-Soleil, Saint-Jean-d'Illac and Pessac. Its cost was estimated at 20 million euros. It was to be the only college in this priority district and the only one in the town on the “extra-ring road”.
However, the project was well advanced. The plans from the BPA Architecture firm, the location on the former sports plain, the first works… Everything was decided. This Wednesday, December 4, at the exit of Oscar-Auriac primary school, not far from the sports field, parents and students did not hide their disappointment. “We were impatiently waiting for it. We live on Avenue Jean-Monnet and my eldest daughter has to go to the Collège des Eyquems. With school transport, it is not easy, because there is only one bus in the evening and in the morning. But when it starts later or ends earlier, there is only one bus line that can take it directly,” laments Sawsan Maloumy Rafiqi. She hoped that her youngest son, in fifth grade, would benefit from the new school.
For the Goglin family, the children will have to go to the Eyquems college, six kilometers from their house, while the Beutre college should be right next door.
N.L.
“It’s a shame. It would have been right next to the Oscar-Auriac school. To go to the Eyquems college, it’s more complicated logistically, you’ll have to get up earlier,” Brice Goglin also regrets. His eldest son will have to cycle six kilometers to get there when he doesn't take the bus. “There is also a question of available places, because this college is in high demand,” he adds. Clément, in CM2, would also have preferred to enter a brand new establishment. “Especially since there was a sports project with a gymnasium and a dojo. »
“No college in Beutre”
“Today, we have no college in Beutre. It’s regrettable,” worried the mayor, Alain Anziani, in the municipal council. His first deputy, Thierry Trijoulet, shares his disappointment and that of the families concerned. “This college needed to gain momentum. It was intended to accommodate future students residing in Mérignac-Soleil. But it is true that with the building crisis, certain real estate projects are slow to come to fruition, which raised demographic questions for this college,” he adds.
Mérignace elected officials do not throw stones at the Department. The departmental council estimated its shortfall linked to budgetary restrictions at 80 million euros. “And the motion of censure voted in the Assembly will not call into question the lack of resources for communities,” explains Isabelle Dexpert, vice-president in charge of colleges and educational policies. The project is effectively abandoned.
BPA Architectures
This is what the future Beutre college in Mérignac was supposed to look like.
“We cannot embark on a future that we do not control financially. We hear the disappointment of the families. But there will be a new sectorization proposed, with a rebalancing of students between the Eyquems college and that of Gisèle-Halimi, in the city center,” she suggests. And with 1,800 additional middle school students arriving each year, the Department notes that there has been “a decline in recent years, with needs evolving according to real estate programs”. However, he remains “attentive to the evolution of demographics in this sector”.
New project
With the abandonment of the college, the municipality does not want to leave the former sports area without projects. Apart from a few dog walkers or joggers, this 10 hectare space is little used. “We want residents to take ownership of this land. Projects are under discussion to create public facilities,” says Thierry Trijoulet.
Thierry David / SO
A new project will have to be designed between the municipality and the residents on this little-used 10 hectare space.
Sports equipment, municipal hall, natural space or theme park, all slopes remain open. “We will come back with proposals and we will open a consultation to residents,” promises the first deputy. The budget allocated to this project should not be excessive, given the financial uncertainties weighing on communities.
