Montpellier-Perpignan TGV line: these houses bought by the SNCF are falling into ruin in Poussan

These villas are now squatted and covered in waste and rubble. Hélène Amiraux

Illegal dumping is accumulating dangerously close to the protected area of ​​the Issanka spring. Hélène Amiraux

La SNCF, propriétaire des maisons doit faire démolir les villas, aujourd'hui couvertes de dépôts sauvages. Hélène Amiraux

Along the bucolic D119 E7 road along the Plaine area in Poussan, one can be struck by amazement by discovering piles of bulky waste so massive that they spill from the gates of ruined villas onto the road. Sofas, fridges, rubble, construction equipment, truck tires pile up in and around dozens of abandoned houses in the middle of vegetation that is trying to reclaim its rights. These old villas in this peripheral area of ​​Poussan, very close to the protection perimeter of the Issanka area, are crumbling on the spot. Savagely stripped of their useful materials, tagged, they have become, for several years, illegal dumping sites, which harm the community.

Squats, drug trafficking, fires

Owned by SNCF Réseaux, this built heritage, now in ruins, was bought by the railway operator as part of the contested Montpellier-Perpignan New Line (LMNP) project. It is on this sector that the future viaduct (1.4 km long and 30 meters high) planned on the route of this high-speed line should be built, which in the best case scenario could be built by 2030.

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The mayor of Poussan, Florence Sanchez, is all the more concerned by the situation because these houses, which have been degraded for several years, are a source of public safety problems. Squatted, some are home to drug trafficking and constitute a major fire risk in a natural area. Last May, the former Pam nightclub, on the Issanka road, was the subject of a violent fire of suspicious origin. “These abandoned houses pose a problem for residents who live nearby and are not affected by the future high-speed rail line”, the elected official points out.

After having raised the subject several times with the prefect (a new meeting is planned for this Thursday), Florence Sanchez was once again moved by it at the first public meeting on November 7 in her area. To which, the director of the LNMP mission responded that the destruction of these houses should begin before the end of the year. “We were waiting to have several buildings to destroy in order to group the expenses and launch the calls for tenders”, confirms SNCF Réseaux, specifying that a company was in the process of being designated. The destruction should be spread out until the beginning of 2025″. Except in special cases such as the former Pam nightclub. “The fire requires a review of the asbestos removal process, which will not be able to begin until 2025”, SNCF Réseaux continues to assure. In total, the operator has already acquired around ten buildings between 2022 and 2024. “A dozen more should be purchased by 2028”, reveals SNCF Réseaux. Which assures that vegetation maintenance operations will be carried out for fire prevention.

What about the impact studies on the Issanka spring ?

Unveiled to elected officials a fortnight ago, the latest studies delivered by the Regional Bureau for Mining Studies (BRGM) and the Center for Studies and Expertise on Risks, the Environment, Mobility and Development (Cerema), are far from reassuring in view of the risk of submersion of the line. As for those concerning the environmental aspect, dedicated to the impact of the construction site on the Issanka source, they have not yet started, despite the classification of the project in a declaration of public utility. The deadline is not yet known. 

But for Florence Sanchez, the stakes go far beyond that. Like the other mayors of the Agglo, she has just discovered the results of new studies which confirm that the LGV line is threatened with submersion within the next 100 years: “It's absurd, the SNCF is going to continue to buy land while the project does not take into account the risk of submersion, nor the fact that we will have almost no more TGV service to Sète and Agde, that there will be no freight after Béziers, while they are promoting it. Phase 2 of the line between Béziers and Spain has just been called into question. All studies have to be redone. The department voted against the funding, what will the consequences be for phase 1 as well ?”, wonders the mayor, opposed to the project as it stands from the start. “This project no longer corresponds to the territory. We are hopeful that we will be able to act, we have been waiting for thirty years, we can wait a little to think about it.”