Equestrian center in difficulty, water chlorination, waste… what to remember from the last Cœur de Lozère community council of the year 2024

Vingt-neuf délibérations étaient à l’ordre du jour du conseil communautaire Cœur de Lozère. Midi Libre – Manon Baffie

The Cœur de Lozère community council met this Thursday, December 19, 2024, at the Mende town hall annex. A good part of the session was devoted to the presentation of the activity reports of the various departments. A look back at the highlights.

Among the 29 deliberations on the agenda of the Cœur de Lozère community council of this Thursday, December 19, were the activity reports of the various departments for the 2023 financial year. The opportunity to take stock of their activities and discuss their prospects.

The equestrian center in difficulty

Despite around twenty lessons per week, competition outings or birthdays on Sundays, the equestrian center ends up in deficit. The shortfall is particularly to be found in the courses during the holidays, fewer of which this season.

“This is an essential point that I need to work on“, insisted the center manager, Isabelle Joulia. She is therefore considering the possibility of offering courses with accommodation. “I have quite a few requests from outside people. That would be an additional pool of customers.“

Another solution considered is the organization of competitions. A lucrative activity, but which would require investment in an obstacle course. Laurent Suau hailed his “fierce will to defend this center“. “We can only admire this commitment“, declared the president of the community of communes.

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Chlorination recommended for the commune of Born

The activity report of the water exploitation service highlighted the good quality of drinking water within the intercommunal territory. Out of more than 600 analyses carried out in 2023, only three were found to be non-compliant, two of which were for minor reasons. The third, however, led to a restriction of use in the commune of Born. The presence of the Escherichia coli bacteria had been detected there due to the intrusion of sheep into the catchment. The barriers around the area have since been reinforced. The water department, however, recommends implementing chlorination to avoid this type of incident in the future.

Analysis to detect VCM

In 2025, the water department plans to carry out 130 analyses to detect the possible presence of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), a carcinogenic agent. The presence of this substance in water is mainly caused by the degradation of PVC pipes. “There would be potential releases into the community of communes.” The service has started to make an inventory of them.

Debate around the Cad'o cœur operation

Opposition elected officials De Mende and you Emmanuelle Soulier and Bruno Portal voted against the resolution on the allocation of a subsidy to the trade office as part of the Cad’o coeurœur scheme.

According to them, the proposal should have been submitted to the council before the operation, which took place three weeks ago. Emmanuelle Soulier also deplores the fact that the city centre ended up “even more deserted than usual” after Cad’o cœur.

A statement contested by Laurent Suau: “I went to the merchants before and after the operation and the feedback is extremely positive. Some have seen hundreds of customers come through. The challenge is also to get a message across, to defend local commerce at the time of Black Friday."

Proposals on waste

During the presentation of the activity report of the waste collection and treatment service, Emmanuelle Soulier asked the president about the possibility of setting up collective compost bins. A good idea according to Laurent Suau, but not easy to set up: “The difficulty is that we need to put in human resources to manage the collection.” The president also suggested installing chicken coops next to the playgrounds. “The children would go and feed the chickens. We haven't gone that far yet, but there is a real challenge.“

At the request of several councillors, the community of communes will also study the possibility of organising a cardboard collection in the communes around Mende. “We need to see if by rotating once a month, we have the margin to finance it”, specified Laurent Suau.

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