Moudenc and the Toulouse auditorium project: “I felt like an abandonment”
Jean-Luc Moudenc returns to the case of the former Saint-Michel prison, in Toulouse. The mayor of the Pink City believes that he did not have the final aid offered by the State for his auditorium project for the Capitol orchestra. He wishes good luck to the Department.
How did we come to what looks like the abandonment of your auditorium project, Cité de la Musique, in the former Saint-Michel prison?
We are on a State site, I remind you. From the start, I went to see Aurélie Filipetti, then Minister of Culture, to set up this auditorium project for the Orchester national du Capitole. The yield study was conducted with the State. I hope that, for the last round, while this project is expensive (150 million euros, according to Francis Grass, deputy mayor for Culture, editor’s note), the State would be present. It was not the case. I felt it like giving up. It was unexpected. What I said to the prefect: “It’s a State site, it’s up to you to take the file differently”. The prefect told me that he was not mandated to register the auditorium file in the State-Region Plan Contract (CPER). I was not going to register credits with the CPER whereas the State would not follow, even if Carole Delga, in the name of the Region, had told me that she would follow.
What do you think of the project proposed by the Department on the old prison?
I only know what I read in the press, in your newspaper. I was not informed by the departmental council of Haute-Garonne. I wonder if it’s a political stunt or if it’s serious. So much the better if the Department is ready to bear any additional cost. A college alone will not be enough on such a site, given the size and importance of the buildings of the former prison, which will have to be preserved and for which a use will have to be found. The Department can only go there with partners. The commitment was made with local residents that green spaces be created, open to the public. It cannot be simple college courses, closed to the outside world.
What will be your attitude now in this file of the site of the former Saint-Michel prison?
I will ensure compliance with several principles. First, by preserving the possibility of an auditorium for the Orchester national du Capitole, which needs it.
Could it be done for less in a less constrained site?
We’ll see.
It will also be a question of respecting the architecture of the site as agreed with the inhabitants (the star of the former prison, the most heritage part of the site, is protected by the local urban plan, Editor’s note). And then, I also ensured that the public gardens requested by the neighborhood were well created and open to the public.
I wish the Department good luck with their project. But I doubt that it can be realized without partners. And, unlike Guillaume Drijard (president of the Saint-Michel neighborhood committee, editor’s note), I do not cast opprobrium on private partners.
Have you also planned the construction of private accommodation around your auditorium project?
Yes, it couldn’t be done without. We had negotiated their location with the residents.