Toulouse, metro: does the felling of trees justify the suspension of the construction site of the 3rd line?
The interim judge heard at length this Monday afternoon, December 5, the arguments of Friends of the Earth, which calls for the suspension of work on the 3rd line in the name of the environment and biodiversity, and the defense of the prefect and Tisseo.
Did the felling of some 1,600 trees and the displacement of many protected animal species justify the suspension of the construction of the 3e metro line, which is just beginning. We discussed it at length, at the administrative court of Toulouse, all this Monday, December 5 afternoon.
For the Friends of the Earth-Midi-Pyrénées, at the initiative of this request for interim relief before the administrative judge, there is no doubt. Their co-president, Françoise Noiret, explains: “We are attacking the environmental authorization issued by the prefect, because this project of 3e line is destructive for biodiversity, threatening 78 protected species and their habitat, and providing for the felling of 1,600 trees, of which 1,300 have already been felled”.
“The upcoming felling of 300 trees justifies the emergency”
For the lawyer for the association for the defense of the environment, M° Blanche Magarinos, of the Paris bar, who also obtained the cancellation of the urban travel plan (PDU) for the association 2-pieds 2-roues , “the suspension of the work is justified by the real urgency, because the preparatory work has begun and is in progress, 1,300 trees have already been felled and 300 still remain to be felled; 78 protected species, including 56 of birds, but also amphibians, chiroptera, insects, mammals and reptiles are threatened by this work”.
The applicants’ lawyer asserts: “this disproportionate, pharaonic project is in total contradiction with the 2012 PDU currently in force”. She also points to the harmful effects for the environment, according to her, of the construction site of the 3e line, in terms of greenhouse gas and particulate emissions, and water resources. She denounces the “simulacrum of third-party expertise” carried out by the scientific council, even evoking a possible “conflict of interest” at the head of this council. The lawyer, assisted by M°Blanc-Durand, believes that the authorization to derogate from the protection of endangered species did not consider “the credible alternative solution” that the Toulouse RER project constitutes.
“The RER is not an alternative, possibly complementary solution”
An argument dismantled by the civil servant defending the prefect according to whom “the RER is not a satisfactory alternative, both in terms of timing – a train every quarter of an hour instead of a metro every 3 or 4 minutes – of performance and capacity”. While the lawyer for Tisséo Collectivités and Tisséo Ingénierie, M° Conti, responds point by point to each argument put forward by Friends of the Earth by her colleague, hammering: “The 3e line has been declared of public utility”.
The magistrate of the administrative court Bruno Coutier, who admits having spent part of his weekend reading the conclusions of the parties, questions: “300 trees remain to be felled, are they habitats of protected species? […] are there any remarkable, century-old trees among them? “.
The judge wants to know if there is urgency, “if the seriousness and immediacy of the damage” to the environment are established, and can thus justify the suspension of the site.
“No”, answers the defender of the prefect. “Yes”, replies the lawyer for Friends of the Earth: “300 trees to be felled, that’s still huge, there have been suspensions of work for 24 threatened trees”. “No, no serious and imminent harm”, considers the defense of Tisséo Collectivités and Tisséo Ingénierie, “because the 2022 felling campaign is over and the 300 trees remaining to be cut will be felled in the fall of 2023”. In other words, it’s too late or too early.
Response from the judge, who put his decision under advisement, probably at the end of the week.
The appeal on the merits will be examined later
“The metro is one of the cleanest forms of transport for the km traveled”, according to M° Conti, lawyer for Tisséo Collectivités and Tisséo Ingénierie. But for M° Margarinos, who defended the Friends of the Earth, “the assessment in terms of greenhouse gas emissions produced by the construction of the 3e line will be at best neutral if the metro only uses carbon-free electricity”. Who to believe? The lawyer for the association for the defense of the environment disputes the studies and assessments carried out by Tisséo on the environmental and energy balance of the 3e metro line, based on studies carried out by the SGIP (General Secretariat for Investment) and by Atmo. “It’s not comparable,” retorts Tisséo’s lawyer. “Keep your substantive arguments for the trial judge”, tempers the judge in chambers Bruno Coutier. The decision on the merits will be examined later, probably in one or two years…