2023-11-12 12:26:16
This is the end of a long series of several months, punctuated by stormy work meetings, discussions, negotiations, but also, fortunately, some more courteous and constructive exchanges. The swimming pool issue is only just beginning, but the hardest part is over, Friday evening at the headquarters of the Northern Basin Urban Community (Coban), in Andernos-les-Bains. The hardest part, that is to say the choice of sites to establish these future aquatic centers which are missing in the eight cities of the northern Basin agglomeration…
This is the end of a long series of several months, punctuated by stormy work meetings, discussions, negotiations, but also, fortunately, some more courteous and constructive exchanges. The swimming pool issue is only just beginning, but the hardest part is over, Friday evening at the headquarters of the Northern Basin Urban Community (Coban), in Andernos-les-Bains. The hardest part, that is to say the choice of sites to establish these future aquatic centers which are lacking in the eight cities of the northern Bassin agglomeration.
We have known since Friday evening that it is in Andernos and Biganos that the inhabitants of the town will be able to wear their swimming trunks in brand new equipment. Each swimming pool should cost some 12 million euros of work, a sum mainly paid by Coban but partly financed by the two host municipalities (2 million for the work per municipality and 40% of the operation thereafter).
These two aquatic centers will be all the more welcome as there is little infrastructure today in this area, for residents and especially schools. To date, there is an outdated and too small swimming pool in Andernos, and an outdoor swimming pool in Audenge.
The Coban council room, in Andernos, last Friday.
B. B.
Three projects
If this soap opera lasted so long, it is because the eight mayors could not agree in the Coban office on a choice between the towns of Biganos and Marcheprime, both candidates to host one of the two swimming pools. , while the Andernos site reached consensus. Not without difficulty, and after a particularly heated Coban council, the mayors still managed to agree on the principle of a vote by community elected officials, in order to decide between Biganos and Marcheprime. It was therefore set for last Friday evening, during an extraordinary council meeting. 37 community elected officials, representing the 8 municipalities of Coban, participated.
23 votes to 14
The council began behind closed doors, without the public or the press, so that the different projects could be presented and questioned. Andernos proposed a 4,500 m² plot of land on the sports plain, avenue Pierre-de-Coubertin. Biganos applied for a plot of land of more than 8,000 m² at Parc Lecoq, avenue de la Libération, therefore in the center. Finally, Marcheprime presented several possible sites located within the perimeter of the La Caravelle performance hall. Apart from a small clash between the mayors of Mios and Andernos, this part of the closed-door council took place in a fairly peaceful atmosphere.
The vote was then held in public session, but it was requested by secret ballot by several elected officials. An urn was therefore taken out. A first ballot focused on the choice of Andernos-les-Bains, which was approved almost unanimously, by 33 votes out of 37 (1 against, 2 blanks and 1 draw). The most anticipated vote followed. Biganos won by 23 votes to Marcheprime’s 14, which triggered applause from part of the room.
On this issue which has given rise to divisions and different visions, we have been able to make the general interest speak out”
At the end of the council, the president of the mayors’ office, Nathalie Le Yondre, took the floor to express her satisfaction: “It is normal in this democratic body that the various proposals can be debated. This required long months of work, numerous discussions in the mayors’ office. We also worked a lot to find the financial package in operation and investment. On this issue which has provoked reactions, divisions, different visions, we have been able to make the general interest speak. I believe in collective intelligence.”
Questioned following the advice by “Sud Ouest”, Manuel Martinez, mayor of Marcheprime, declared in particular: “We have gone to the end of demonstrating the community interest of the Marcheprime project. The closed meeting made it possible to express the strengths of the file. A choice was made, it is the expression of democracy. Now we have to get to work.” Bruno Lafon, mayor of Biganos and president of the mayors’ office, “welcomed this choice for the municipality and the territory”. “The territorial logic was imposed by the democratic debate,” he added.
Governance
Jean-Yves Rosazza, mayor of Andernos, affirmed that the elected officials of his commune “did not support Biganos, but the swimming pool project in this commune”. But he also hoped that “the governance of Coban would resume to end the mandate in a less divisive manner”. “The fact that a secret ballot was requested shows that the governance of intercommunality is still complicated and chaotic.” As vice-president of Coban in charge of the file, it is now up to him “to bring this project to fruition”. Because the longest part is yet to come: building these two swimming pools.
1699794069
#Andernos #Biganos #swimming #pools