Petition against the closure of Bessancourt town center to cars
through Daniel Cholet
has been published
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Along with the closing of the new pedestrian town center project Main streetthe town hall and post office car parks cause a lot of noise.
A petition asking the city to restore traffic (on paper at merchants and online via change.org) has already garnered 800 signatures.
“My customers tell me that if this continues, they will not come again.”
He agreed to keep the petition “calling on the municipality to review the downtown project and restore traffic to normal.”
“If people have to walk 400 meters to buy a baguette, they go somewhere else.”
Wrath of the Merchants
The city put up a barricade blocking the Grande-Rue.
The sign indicates that it is now »quiet zone‘. The diagram explains the route you should take to reach Espace Marc-Steckar and the car park in front of the air base, just over 200m from the town hall car park.
Decommissioning of this car park will begin in the spring. The city will use this area in 2024 as ” island of freshness around its restored church, with several restaurants and terraces.
Five enterprises announce. A resident across the street from the town hall had to cross the road to drive home.
“While everything is concrete in Besancourt, they want to impose a piece of nature on us. Nature, we go to the forest and throw a stone. This is a utopian project, there is a lot of communication around it. My wish in 2023 is that we can cycle again. Have we thought about people with reduced mobility? »
“It’s a desert”
Francois Rochard, The Grande-Rue resident is at the start of a petition that has gathered 800 signatures, including “more than 320 online.” In his eyes, this closure is a failure.
“Some unions are dissatisfied. The library is empty. The city center is empty. By chasing cars, we influence traffickers. We do not understand the meaning of this project. We want to make the center a “carbon-free” zone, but cars just go everywhere. We could make the center a pedestrian zone on weekends and keep it open the rest of the time.
Mayor, Jean-Christophe Poulet: “Resistance, we expected it”
Facing controversy, the mayor chose to respond in a video message posted on the City’s website. “The resistance around the traffic, to be honest, we expected it,” explains Jean-Christophe Poulet.
Ecological transition
“As soon as we touch the machine, one of our addictions to each of us, an elected official who is very powerful and sometimes undermines the progress of ecology, continues, we know that causes this kind of opposition. Of course, the car has its place in the city. That’s why we moved. »
According to him, the project is part of the “ecological transition”.
“With an environmentalist mayor elected in 2001, we should still expect to be a little more environmentalist than the rest! “The chosen one, who does not want to make people’s lives impossible, smiles.
There is no reduction in the number of stops
He reminds that there is no demolition of parking spaces. He mentions the church car park in the blue zone, “there’s always room to go to your favorite merchants.
And we have another big renovated parking lot near the base. In total, according to the mayor, there are “twenty additional places”. “Everything may not be perfect, he knows the chosen one. Perhaps more space is needed for people with reduced mobility. »
A working group is formed to make corrections
A Cabinet-backed “sustainable mobility” working group of traders’ colleges will “meet several times from January to consider all corrective measures to be taken, including in the direction of traffic”. But in essence, there is no question of changing the project: “We are talking about changing our behavior a little, going without a car and going to the shops on foot. The elected official does not believe the bill would penalize commerce.
“How can it be explained that the purpose of this project is to punish traders, while the project leaders are currently located in the center of the city for restaurants and shops. That’s why people believe in this project. »
Work on Grande-Rue will continue for two years from 2024
According to the mayor, an important topic will be the Grande-Rue construction site, sewerage works will begin in 2024 and last two years. “Separation of networks is a legal obligation. Grande-Rue in sections will be unusable except for residents, but it will be complicated. Including for traders. We will have to find solutions to access it on foot. You can get used to it now. The project will be accompanied by the renewal of pavements and the burial of networks. “The requalification Grande-Rue really needs”.
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