This Monday, September 20, 2021, Justice suspended the building permit which planned to raze the gardens of the town to build a training pool for the Paris-2024 Olympics.
Justice has ruled. An administrative judge on Monday suspended the building permit for the future Aubervilliers training basin for the Paris 2024 Olympic games, disputed by environmentalists. “The execution of this ordinance, which suspends the contested building permit, necessarily implies, like the support in the right place for the applicants, that the work already undertaken should be immediately terminated.“, concluded the administrative court of appeal of Paris, in a judgment consulted by AFP. There are”serious doubts about legality“of this permit, deposited irregularly by Karine Franclet, the UDI mayor of Aubervilliers, and issued without respecting certain town planning rules, specifies the decision.
The Paris administrative court of appeal suspended the building permit for a swimming pool in Aubervilliers in Seine-Saint-Denis, intended to serve as a training basin for the Paris-2024 Olympic Games, which involves the destruction of gardens workers #AFP
– Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) September 20, 2021
The project notably involves the destruction of 67 trees, “while the building permit only envisages as compensation (…) the replanting of 47 trees“so detailed the court.”We are relieved, it is recognition. Earthworks started this morning, they had to stop“, Ziad Maalouf, one of the three gardeners behind the request, with two environmental defense associations told AFP.”We keep denouncing the fact that we could do otherwise“, hammered Jean-Marie Baty, president of the National Movement for the fight for the environment (MNLE 93).
Ecological emergency
Asked by AFP, the municipality of Aubervilliers said it did not wish to react immediately. They have two choices: regularize the contentious points raised by the administrative judge or appeal to the Council of State. The urgent suspension of the works does not mean the total shutdown of the project, which must be the subject of a new hearing on the merits. The same court had interrupted in April the work of the media village, another flagship project of the Olympic Games in Seine-Saint-Denis. But three months later, after the study of the file in the background, it had reversed, authorizing the resumption of the site. On Saturday again, around 300 people marched in Aubervilliers to denounce this project, which they believe is contrary to the ecological emergency. It mainly targets the solarium which should accompany the aquatic center and emerge instead of trees and vegetable gardens.
The workers’ gardens of the Vertus, a century-old enclave of 2.5 hectares at the foot of the towers, must be reduced by 4000 m² for the construction of this work. The majority of the gardeners concerned were moved to other neighboring plots by Grand Paris Aménagement, owner of the land.
33 million euros
Training pool for swimmers during the Olympics, the swimming pool must then be accessible to the inhabitants of this popular city, in a department where 60% of children cannot swim when they return to 6th grade, especially for lack of sufficient infrastructure. For Aubervilliers (87,000 inhabitants on the outskirts of Paris), the issue goes beyond the mere issue of water because it must materialize an old regional development project: the installation of an Olympic swimming pool was already mentioned during the candidacy of Paris at the 2012 Olympics.
I don’t intend Seine-Saint-Denis to lose these credits.
The project is estimated at 33 million euros, of which about a third must be financed by Solideo, the company responsible for delivering the works for the 2024 Olympic Games. According to the initial plan, this controversial basin was to be financed by the 26th at the latest. June 2024, one month before the start of the Olympic Games. “If the calendar does not allow the pool to be signposted as a training site, Solideo will raise the debate“of its financial participation, warned this Monday to the press Stéphane Troussel, the president (PS) of the Departmental Council of Seine-Saint-Denis. If this catastrophic scenario were to materialize,”I don’t intend Seine-Saint-Denis to lose these credits“, anticipated Mr. Troussel, who made”inheritance“The Games are a priority to boost the development of the poorest department in mainland France.
When contacted, the Solideo and the Paris-2024 organizing committee did not react immediately.
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