Le parking où doit voir le jour la maison de santé avec, au fond, la résidence des opposants. Thomas Ancona-Léger – Midi Libre
Florence Taillade, première ajointe au maire de Valras, s’est fendue d’une longue lettre ouverte aux habitants de Valras pour expliquer les raisons de cette situation de blocage.
This is a long letter that the people of Valras were able to discover in their mailboxes last week. Its subject ? An update on the current deadlock situation surrounding the future multidisciplinary health center, signed by Florence Taillade, first deputy mayor in charge of the file. Entitled “When a project of general interest collides with private interests”, the letter looks back at the rather chaotic history of this health establishment that has been awaited for four years now. And which, today, is still at a standstill: on the old Giraud car park that should host the new site on Avenue de Élysées, you can barely make out the sign attesting to the building permit.
Residents against the project
“What we feel is disappointment and sadness. Sadness to see that we can oppose the interest of residents for strictly private pretexts”, confides Florence Taillade, who inherited the file. Far from being a smooth ride, the history of this health center has been the subject, from the start, of virulent opposition from a handful of local residents. In 2022, a few residents gathered in a condominium association of an adjacent residence had challenged the deliberation to downgrade the land in the Montpellier administrative court. They won on form: the mayor, Daniel Ballester, whose nurse wife is part of the interprofessional outpatient care company (SISA) that supports the project, as well as the pulmonologist Laurence Safont, president of the latter and, moreover, member of the Municipal Council, should have abstained from voting on this deliberation.
Which will result in a new vote two years later, this time without the presence of the mayor and the pulmonologist. But the local residents (read below), do it again and attack again, pushing back the deadline again. The same thing happens when signing the building permit which comes on March 8, 2024, and which is also attacked. “We have used all the possibilities for dialogue but nothing works: the situation is completely blocked”, notes the first deputy. Tired of the war, she therefore resorted to the good old method of the open letter to try to move things forward, “and especially to explain to the people of Valras what the context is“, in short to give her version.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000A political twist
Around the parking lot where the new buildings housing the shops stand, people remain circumspect. “It's certain that this health center would be a plus, it would save us from galloping all the way to Béziers to see specialists”, notes André, a resident of the casino district. They would still have to agree to come and settle in Valras. But if the project does not seem, at first glance, controversial, the episode of the first deliberation canceled has engendered suspicion. To the point that some caregivers, members of the SISA, have withdrawn from the structure. This is the case of Julien Belou, a nurse in Valras for seven years, who decided to leave the company. “This whole affair has become too political, we have the impression of being manipulated and it made me feel uncomfortable”, he analyzes.
The fact remains that the case is now back in the hands of the administrative court of Montpellier. “Knowing that the time taken by justice is sometimes long, we do not expect a decision for weeks, or even months”, believes Florence Taillade. In any case, the elected official admits to being confident about the outcome of the trial. “They attacked with a whole bunch of fallacious arguments like the fact that the building was going to be 13 stories high when it will only be three, she says. In the meantime, the residents of Valras will have to continue to make do with their usual doctors. Because, and this is also the whole point of this medical project: “It is also necessary to attract new practitioners and potentially replace those who will soon be retiring”. All the more so with the arrival of the new inhabitants of the Archipelago.
“Before we had a view of the sea”
"We have nothing against seeing a health center installed, but why build it on three floors, and with balconies ?" Liliane Segard, originally from Tarn, is with her husband, the owner of a small holiday apartment on the ground floor of the Casino residence where the opposition against the health center project crystallized. This property, which she bought in 1986, she says she is now thinking of selling it. “We don't know what tomorrow will bring, but you would accept that a three-story building comes and stands five meters in front of your house when you had a view of the sea ?”
“We are all very unhappy"
According to her, it would not be a handful of opponents but rather the entire building that would be up in arms against this medical project. “There are 44 of us in the building and I can tell you that we are all very unhappy”, she asserts. Furthermore, the owner admits to being skeptical about the economic future of this future establishment: “In winter, there are almost no people in Valras, how will this health center manage to operate” ?”, she wonders. Enough to add fuel to the controversy surrounding this project which, let us recall, has still not started.
Competition between health establishments ?
“This whole affair has become too political”. A nurse in Valras for seven years, Julien Belou has retired from SISA, the healthcare structure that supports the health center. While he continues to view the initiative favorably, arguing that “it is indeed necessary”, he nevertheless points out another problem. “Another health center is about to see the light of day in Sérignan, “this risks creating competition”, he explains. According to him, it would have been preferable to pool resources in order to build a “large health center” for both municipalities”. An argument that does not convince Florence Taillade for whom the number of summer visitors (40,000 in high season) justifies in itself the creation of two establishments.
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