VIDEO. Castres-Toulouse motorway: the action of opponents on an archaeological excavation site
By Paul Halbedel
Published on
Large holes have been appearing for several weeks in the middle of several plots. The Archaeological excavations started on the route of the future A69 motorway which must link Castres to Toulouse. “Psychologically, it’s strong what they are doing. Everyone thinks that the work on the motorway has started when this is not the case and that the environmental public inquiry has not even taken place”, launches Frédéric from the collective The way is clear.
Saturday, November 26, this association bringing together citizens and elected officials opposed to this motorway project a new organized symbolic action in the municipality of Maurens Scoponton one of the plots where these excavations are currently taking place as a preventive measure.
Equipped with boots and skins, a little more than 80 people came to bury old plates, amphoras and other wooden dinosaurs in this field located along the N126. “The goal is still for the archaeologists to find them,” one of the organizers laughs, pointing out to the participants where “digging to plan their relics”.
Notify of the launch of the public inquiry
The date of this mobilization was not chosen at random by the collective. Monday, November 28, will open the public inquiry prior to the issuance of environmental authorizations. The last stage to be franchised for the project before the start of the works.
We want to inform the population that the public inquiry for the environmental authorization of the Castres-Toulouse motorway project will restart in two days. We want the vast majority of the population to participate in order to express themselves on this project, which seems completely absurd to us. […] There are archaeological excavations that have been undertaken on the route. People think the work has started when it hasn’t. It’s just a mandatory procedure and they’re going to close these holes afterwards. What will happen is rather the tarring in order of this area between Castres and Verfeil.
The collective still defends the development of the existing route
Calling for a “surge of opinions against the motorway project during this public inquiry”, opponents of the Castres-Toulouse motorway are campaigning for thedevelopment and securing of the existing route.
We are calling on people to mobilize en masse because we know, having met many people on the route, that many of them are opposed to this project and are more in favor of the development of the national road which is completely abandoned. We have seen 3D images where it looks like it no longer exists, it is interspersed with lots of roundabouts and will be extremely degraded. We want this road to be developed instead of a motorway project which is extremely destructive with 250 hectares of additional land consumed, rather than if we were content to develop the existing one.
A supporting MP
During this action organized in Maurens-Scopont, the collective was able to count on the support of the deputy for the second district of Tarn, Karen Erodi (La France insoumise), which had also put on its boots to accompany the demonstrators.
It is a useless and ecocide project. […] Why build this motorway when there is the National Council for the Protection of Nature which says that it is an anachronistic project and from another time, that the environmental authority says the same… Certainly these are organizations advisory, but it is nevertheless technicians and scientists who give these opinions. We must respect them and take everyone’s opinion. Here, we don’t consult the associations that are against this highway either.
The elected official also wonders about the position of the State but also of her parliamentary counterparts from Tarn such as the senator Philippe Folliot (Centrist Alliance) or the deputy John Terlier (The Republic on the Move) which would cost the project.
We are going to indebt the State for 50 years on a project which will be the most expensive in France, which has no place… Who is going to take this highway? People who have €1,500 are not going to pay €300 to go to work. No one will take it. It will be in deficit, everyone knows that. Why do these elected officials remain blocked at a time when it is necessary to no longer artificialize the soil, no longer concrete and make an ecological bifurcation.
The public inquiry and after?
Like the members of the collective, Karen Erodi is witnessing a major mobilization of citizens during this public inquiry. “It will be at least a moment when we will take the opinion of the citizens. Because they are the first concerned. It is not the little elected officials, in their office, who should decide these things.she indicates.
On the side of the collective La Voie est libre, it is assured that even if the environmental authorizations are issued at the end of this public inquiry, the fight will not stop for all that. “We are already ready to go longer. There will still be mobilizations. There is still the possibility of making legal appeals.says Frederic.
And when we discuss with the association activist the possibility of seeing a Zone to defend (Zad) see the light of day on the route of the motorway, the answer is frank: “It will not be our collective that will carry such an initiative. We, our goal is to unite people against this project through peaceful actions like today. But it is clear that some people ask us in this direction and are ready to carry out this kind of action. »
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