« Trois quarts des habitants sont à moins de 15 kilomètres d’une piscine »
Behind these figures, a reality: the agglomeration lacked swimming pools. The French Swimming Federation has developed an “index of swimming pool surface area available per inhabitant”. If the sports body recommends that it be between 0.017 and 0.020 m² / inhabitant, the Bordeaux agglomeration emerged painfully at 0.013 m². “A national problem”, states Brigitte Bloch who underlines that “today we are better equipped than cities like Nantes and Strasbourg”.
Territorial distribution
As this plan enters its final year, the vice-president of the Métropole in charge of major facilities, even announces that “at the end we will be on target with a total surface area of 16,878 m²”, propelling the index at 0.022 m²/inhabitant. At least, at the completion of the works which, Covid obliges, are for some months late. which is not the case with Talence swimming pool, where Emmanuel Sallaberry ensures that “the schedule is maintained”, for an opening next summer. LThe Mérignac nautical stadium sees its opening postponed following the suspension of its building permit. On this thorny point, the vice-president of the president-mayor of Mérignac shows herself: “The objective is to open the covered spaces as soon as possible. “Where we want to believe that Alain Anziani reserves the first of an announcement, during the wishes, this January 11.
Some 815,000 metropolitan residents then gained 4,690 m² of water surface area, with the construction of eight new facilities (Eysines-Le Haillan, Blanquefort-Parempuyre, Bruges, Cenon, Lormont, Mérignac, Pessac, Bordeaux Belcier) and the rehabilitation of four others (Ambarès-et-Lagrave, Le Bouscat, Bordeaux Galin and Talence).
But to do this, the Metropolis had to review its ambitions in February 2021. If, in fine, 11 projects received a co-financing agreement, an extension of 10 million euros was necessary for their realization, taking into account the increase in the cost of materials. In a current context of inflation and soaring energy prices, is a new endowment significant, while the file of swimming pools is on the menu of the metropolitan council on January 17? “It is not excluded”, answers the elected official who prefers “to study late requests and see the territorial distribution”.