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“Significant delays” to rehabilitate the center of Marseille with only 31 new housing units built at the end of 2018 out of 1,500 planned: the regional chamber of accounts is firing red balls on the company managed by the Metropolis responsible for developing a city marked by the unsanitary housing.
In a report made public this week, the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur chamber of accounts does not spare its criticisms of the management by the local company of equipment and development of the metropolitan area (Soleam), between 2010 and 2018, the city bruised by the collapse of unsanitary buildings which left eight people dead in November 2018. The company, whose majority shareholder is the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolis headed by Martine Vassal (LR), has carried out operations globally “far removed from stated ambitions and expectations, without it being able to be held solely responsible”, she notes.
“The total control of the shareholder communities on Soleam allows them to impose incessant upheavals affecting the projects that this operator has undertaken and to put up with their being put on hold for long periods,” the report pinns. It thus notes that the development operations, and in particular the operation known as the Grand Center-Ville, entrusted to the company with a budget of € 230 million, which were initially due to end in 2020, have been extended until 2025.
“While some improvements and public facilities have been achieved, the housing targets were far from being achieved: out of the 1,500 new housing units initially planned, only 31 had been completed by the end of 2018.” “The support operation for requalifications of buildings by private owners did not give convincing results either, ”notes the chamber. In addition, “other operations, not initially planned, such as the requalification of the place Jean Jaurès, took place in chaotic conditions”, she also points out about this former car park transformed into a playground but violently contested by some residents.
“As a result, the management costs of this operation (…) turn out to be particularly high with regard to the sites actually implemented, the expenses and revenues charged to the concession. “For the regional chamber of accounts, the Soleam” responded piecemeal to the demands of its shareholder communities, without any real medium-term strategic vision “. The “multitude” of actors “confines” it to a role “of executor, more than of concessionaire”, she deplores.
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