Through Camille Ruffray
Published on
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Six-year program, the Small towns of tomorrow label looks like a new mandate. Locomotive of the territory, the city of Pont-l’Evêque is one of the 37 communes of Calvados to have obtained its ticket for this device.
Concretely, the label is for her a boost and an opportunity to realize its projects, in order to improve the living environment of the inhabitants and to attract new ones. And this involves enhancing the existing, by developing two sites downtown.
Place Foch sees things big
Located In the city center, Place Foch already has many advantages for her, like its 100-space car park, its proximity to the covered market and its events, the Tourist Office, the shopping streets, or even the Bras d’Or Park. With the device, the city aims to make it a real event and associative center of the city. Both to create a unifying place, programming for all audiences, and making it cross borders. “This will make it possible to become a central hub between Rouen and Caen, highly sought after in this sector by groups and companies,” adds Yves Deshayes, mayor.
Owner of part of France Telecom building, the city wants to create a multipurpose conference room there, and enlarge the building to accommodate the associative pole. “We want to bring together the house of associations, the club of the golden age and ephemeral shops and producers of short circuits in the same place of life”, he explains. It also plans to create a covered hall to develop a market for local products and commercial and event activity. “This extension will allow the creation of tertiary activities on the floors,” he explains.
Other building to enhance: the covered market, by rehabilitating it and arranging it in a modern and flexible way for events. An extension of 400 m2 could be created to integrate a performance hall and various exhibitions. “And create a new event offering for professionals. “
A facelift for the Vaucelles district
A few steps from Place Foch, it is the district of Vaucelles that the city wishes to develop. The site already has its natural and cultural heritage, but could move even more.
Strengthening the attractiveness of the city, the old district wants to become the‘epicenter of these activities, where to get a bowl of culture. “We wish to strengthen the cultural and artistic pole around the Place du Tribunal by creating links with the existing structures: the music school, the old prison, the Les Dominicaines cultural space, the Tour de la Vicomté; to interact more efficiently on the Culturama project, led by Terre d’Auge ”, explains Yves Deshayes.
The Digital Public Space, located rue Thouret, will be integrated by moving it to 60, rue Saint-Michel, a stone’s throw from the town hall, in a building acquired by the municipality two years ago. The building will be rehabilitated to offer an artistic and digital concept, with Fablab, wifi, veranda café, free computer access, but also Micro-Madness. These places of cultural life are popping up all over the country and allow residents to access thousands of works from national museums thanks to digital technology.
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At the same time, the label will allow reinstate local commerce on this site “by renovating the commercial premises and adjoining housing, and by reopening the windows on rue de Vaucelles”. A vast program, which should reveal even more the potential of the city center.
The Small towns of tomorrow label, in concrete terms
Since the proclamation of the winners, the Small Towns of Tomorrow label has been displayed everywhere. However, it is not always easy to see clearly in these institutional programs.
This six-year mechanism, carried by the territorial cohesion agency in partnership with the regions and departments and especially the inter-municipal authorities, aims to improve the conditions of the inhabitants of the small municipalities and surrounding areas. Objective: “to reveal their potential” and make their projects a reality. All in parallel with the State stimulus plan. The label is financial support on the one hand, but also human support. A project manager will join the city’s teams to provide his expertise. With the Small Towns of Tomorrow label, the city wants to consolidate its attractiveness by creating structures that can suit all generations.
Taking advantage of its geographical location, it wishes to strengthen its events and associative center at Place Foch in order to “create a multifunction economic basin” which may be of interest to other cities. With the district of Vaucelles, it wishes to participate in the revitalization of the cultural and events and digital offer, meet a need to modernize the existing heritage access to the city, and retain the 20-45 year olds. As Hubert Courseaux, president of Terre d’Auge, sums it up, the objective is that “those who pass through Pont-l’Evêque, do not just pass by, but stop there”.
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