Abandonnez le projet d’Aéroport à Notre-Dame-des-Landes!
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It has finally been announced, by Edouard Philippe (Prime Minister of France) that the proposed new airport for Nantes, at Notre-Dame-des-Landes (NDDL), has been abandoned. President Emmanuel Macron and Edouard Philippe have buried the project, which has been seriously criticised for its cost and its environmental consequences. The leaders see the airport as impossible to build because of the fierce opposition by around half the population, so it just a constant source of division. Instead the executive backs re-development of the current Nantes-Atlantique airport, south of the city of Nantes, which will be modernised and have its runway lengthened. That would help a bit to lessen the noise from the flight path that goes over part of the city. The Prime Minister has also announced an expansion of the airport of Rennes-Saint-Jacques and a development of high-speed rail lines between the West and Paris airports. Opponents of the NDDL scheme are jubilant – the battle has lasted almost 50 years, and they almost lost on several occasions. But Edouard Philippe said the “zone to defend” (ZAD) will be cleared, so it is no longer a lawless area with blocked roads etc. Those occupying it will have to leave, and the land be returned to agricultural use
There was a referendum in the Loire-Atlantique département on 26th June, with the question whether people backed the moving of the current Nantes-Atlantique airport south of Nantes, to a site north of Nantes, at Notre-Dame-des-Landes. Finally the voting was 55% in favour of the move. The area to be destroyed for the new airport is good farm land and valuable wetland habitat, and there has been fierce, determined opposition to the project for years. The local opposition, focused through ACIPA, was deeply critical of the way the referendum was organised. They believe areas other than just those in Loire-Atlantique should have been consulted. Some of these areas would be opposed to the move, and some have to contribute public funds towards it. The government wanted the poll as early as possible, as there is a “declaration of public utility” lasting till October, so work has to start by then. The prime minister, Manual Valls, made a statement as soon as the referendum result was known, that “the government will implement the verdict.” Those backing the new airport want to clear the protesters living illegally on the ZAD, some of the land on which the airport would be built, moved away soon, so clearing work can start. ACIPA said this result was just one step in their long struggle against the airport, and their struggle now continues.
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10 point summary of the main reasons why there should not be a new Nantes Airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes.
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hoping to finally bury the planned airport
Large numbers of people had come long distances to be there, many travelling overnight by bus, and then shared their picnics in a good natured event with a festive, but determined, spirit. The opponents of the new airport say that it is not needed, the economic arguments don’t stack up, it will increase carbon emissions, and will destroy valuable farmland and biodiversity. At the moment, the project is considerably delayed, but it is still going ahead. Its opponents want it stopped, and they show no sign of reducing their intense opposition. Click here to view full story… with many more photos … .
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En un seul article, toutes les fiches techniques argumentaires de la coordination des opposants:
There is already an airport at Nantes, but the regional authorities and the French government want to build a new airport to the north west of Nantes, at Notre Dame des Landes, in pristine countryside. This airport will be large, and far bigger than the existing airport. Work on the airport and the associated roads is due to start at the end of 2012. Opposition to the plans has been fierce and determined. Opponents believe the airport is not needed (un grande projet inutile imposé), even the economics don’t work, it will have a negative impact on climate change, and ruin an unspoilt area of France that is now a quiet farming district. The authorities occupied the land that is due to be built on, evicting the squatters, farmers and local people defending the area, using a considerable amount of force, in October 2012. The opponents do not intend to be removed, and continue to fight hard. Until November 2012, the mainstream French media did not cover this story, but that has now changed. The mass protest on 17th November had somewhere between 14,000 to 40,000 protesters from across France. There is much more in the various articles, in English, at Nantes Airport News This is the brochure, in French, from Vinci, giving information about their planned airport. Vinci brochure (12 pages) There is also a lot in French about the proposed new airport and the fight against it, by ACIPA http://acipa.free.fr/ ACIPA = Association Citoyenne Intercommunale des Populations concernées par le projet d’Aéroport de Notre Dame des Landes
A new airport – to be called Nantes International – has been given permission, and work was due to start on it in 2012, for completion in 2017.
Wikipedia page on Nantes Atlantique Nantes Atlantique is currently the largest airport in the west of France; however it can only handle three million passengers a year and cannot be expanded because it is too close to the city. It is therefore currently planned that it will be replaced by a new Aéroport du Grand Ouest, situated 30 km (19 mi) to the north-west of Nantes in the ‘commune’ of Notre-Dame-des-Landes. The €580 million project was approved in February 2008, with construction expected to start in 2014 and an opening date in 2017.[12] .
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from ouest-france.fr
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May 14, 2012 The hunger strike at Nantes, against the Projet d’ aéroport du Grand Ouest, Notre-Dame-des-Landes, ended last week. Now the legal procedures continue, against compulsory purchase of land from farmers and others living in the site, some 30 km north of Nantes, where the airport would be sited and where work would have soon started. The Mayor of Nantes, Jean-Marc Ayrault, had been a keen supporter of the airport for years. He is still very much in favour of it. There is bitterness that he did not once visit the hunger strike over its 28 days, until pressure was put on him by Francoise Hollande’s office to meet one of the campaign. The planned airport would be the main airport for Western France and have up to 9 million passengers per year eventually (current airport has 3 million passengers). Click here to view full story…
The ACIPA website says:
LE PROJET D’AEROPORT DE NOTRE-DAME-DES-LANDES est une aberration économique, sociale et environnementale
Situé à 18 km du centre de Nantes, il ne résoudrait pas les problèmes que pose à la ville l’actuel aéroport. Il les déplacerait seulement. Il infligerait des nuisances graves à plus de 80 000 habitants des communes de la banlieue nord de Nantes. Les diverses structures de raccordement qui lui seraient nécessaires (routes, voies ferrées, pont sur la Loire) causeraient également des problèmes (expropriations) et des nuisances à des milliers d’autres personnes. Le coût colossal de cette infrastructure pèserait sur les impôts des habitants de tout le département et entraînerait des réductions de budget dans d’autres domaines tels l’éducation et la santé. Avec un trafic pouvant aller jusqu’à 9 millions de passagers, cet aéroport augmenterait considérablement les émissions de gaz effet de serre, alors même que le gouvernement proclame son intention de les réduire. Contrairement ce qu’affirment ses partisans, cet aéroport ne serait pas “bon pour l’emploi” , il créerait l’outil permettant aux entreprises de délocaliser et détruirait les emplois existants. Avec des avions à deux minutes de vol du site sévéso de Donges, cet aéroport ferait courir à toute la région un risque tel que, bien que la probabilité en soit faible, il serait criminel de la négliger.
Nous disons donc NON au projet d’aéroport de Notre-Dame-des-Landes
In June 2008, several campaigners from the UK were asked to go to meet the campaigners fighting plans for a new two-runway airport to be built outside Nantes in South West France (Nantes International !) and to speak at their rally. Five of the Nantes campaigners came to the Heathrow Rally on May 31st 2008.. Below is something they produced. It is worth reading – and is one of the most poetic and moving things ever written against airport expansion. A bit about the proposed Nantes Airport .
The world is sliding towards a frightening climate crisis, but our politicians continue to speak a dead language. People who defend the project of an airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes are imagining the future with words from a past which will never exist again.
They are the heirs of those who stood behind the Maginot line waiting for the German army only to be submerged by General Guderian’s tanks in just one night in May 1940. In the same way, they are mistaken, because they take one epoch for another.
If it weren’t so serious, we might be tempted to laugh at the promoters’ arguments concerning the new airport. Like Toinette in Molière’s play, Le Malade Imaginaire, who replies &lquot;the lungs&rquot; to every question about Argan’s health, they repeat &lquot;growth&rquot;, &lquot;growth&rquot;, &lquot;growth&rquot;, as if hypnotised.
They don’t know, because they will never know, that our planet has already reached its physical limits in most of its vital domains, one of which is transport. In a finite world, only the dangerously blind are still advocating the destruction of spaces and species.
The question of an airport is neither to the political right nor to the left. It’s a question of humanity and that’s why we’re taking possession of it. Elsewhere in the world, Heathrow being a good example, people like us have decided to act. We represent hope, while politicians – all of them, from Jean-Marc Ayrault, Mayor of Nantes, to our current Prime Minister, François Fillon, – represent only renunciation.
Politicians invariably repeat that we are living beyond our means, and that the good times are over. Proximity to a hospital has apparently become an intolerable luxury: thus 250 will be closed; but an airport used to travel to Mediterranean beaches is an ineluctable necessity, a public interest. Economics walks on its head. It’s more than time for people to take back control of their destiny.
We know that this fight will be long and difficult. That’s why, we are launching an appeal to all of France, to all of United Kingdom, and to the whole of Europe.
We must support the movement against the airport in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, against the Heathrow extension with all our force, and with means rarely used on the scale that we envisage; occupation of the site, civil disobedience, total and definitive refusal.
There can be no compromise because this is an ongoing fight for a life that is possible as opposed to a nightmare that is sure, and it concerns everyone. We will win, not because we are the strongest but because there is no other solution.
We appeal to all those who are against the expansion of air traffic to stand by each other in order to gather strength around a mutual fight.
Whether here, or there, in Nantes, this frantic political race for economical development which heads straight to disaster must be stopped.
L’aéroport Grand Ouest est un projet d’aéroport internationnal dont l’implantation est prévue sur la commune de Notre-Dame-des-Landes en Loire-atlantique. Cet aéroport doit remplacer celui de Nantes-Atlantique qui ne peut plus s’agrandir. Étant donné la croissance du traffic aérien dans l’ouest de la France (+ 5 % par an) et la faible capacité d’accueil des aéroports environnants il a été décidé la construction d’un aéroport d’une capacité de 4 millions de passagers dès l’ouverture et de 9 millions à terme. Le décret d’utilité publique à été signé le 10 février 2008, les travaux doivent débuter en 2012 pour une ouverture prévue en 2015 Le coût de l’aéroport est estimé à 580 millions d’euros (hors taxes) en 2006(contre 480 en 2002)
Sortons d’un projet sans avenir !
LISEZ EGALEMENT LES INFORMATIONS DE FEVRIER 2008
Projet de Notre Dame des Landes : 18 octobre – 30 novembre Donnez votre avis !
L’enquête publique sur un nouvel aéroport à Notre Dame des Landes est ouverte depuis le 18 octobre et jusqu’au 30 novembre 2006 inclus.
Il est IMPORTANT de consulter le dossier, de déposer nos remarques, d’émettre des contre-propositions.
L’aéroport de Nantes Atlantique n’est pas saturé et ne le sera vraisemblablement jamais :
S’il s’agit de limiter ou d’éviter le survol de l’agglomération nantaise, des solutions alternatives sont proposées :
La nocivite du projet est evidente
Fragilisation de l’emploi au sud Loire, et notamment du site Airbus ;
Déplacements quotidiens de milliers personnes habitant sud Loire pour aller travailler nord Loire dans les entreprises délocalisées ; Augmentation des impôts locaux des habitants du département, de la région sur plusieurs générations pour un tel investissement, pas du tout assuré d’être rentable ; Gaspillage d’un budget de plusieurs centaines de millions d’€ (quelques milliards en incluant les voies ferrées) au détriment d’autres choix pour le département et la région ; Ajout d’une nouvelle structure à N.D. des Landes qui sera coûteuse en fonctionnement alors que Nantes Atlantique continuera de fonctionner (pour EADS) et que de nombreux aéroports de l’Ouest sont actuellement sous-utilisés et coûtent très cher à la collectivité ; Destruction de plus de 2000 hectares de terres agricoles et naturelles, une zone de biodiversité exceptionnelle comme il n’en existe plus dans le département ; Destruction d’une agriculture prospère : suppression de 40 exploitations agricoles, amputation de 40 autres, démantèlement des réseaux d’entraide ; Impact du transport aérien sur l’effet de serre
Selon la Commission européenne, « une véritable politique des transports aériens doit harmoniser l’activité des aéroports et non pas en favoriser certains en réalisant des investissements coûteux »
Pourquoi cette course vers le « toujours plus » ? Cette logique nous a menés dans l’impasse où nous nous trouvons aujourd’hui. Elle doit être remplacée au plus vite par une autre logique marquée par le respect de l’homme, de tous les êtres, de la nature.
Que la réflexion autour de ce projet marque un réel changement de cap !
Les paroles ne suffisent pas, nous avons ici l’occasion d’agir.
PROJET D’AEROPORT
AVIS D’ENQUETES PUBLIQUES Les enquêtes publiques conjointes préalables concernent la déclaration d’utilité publique des travaux nécessaires
On peut lire le dossier du projet et donner son avis :
Des observations peuvent également être adressées par écrit à :
M. le Président de la Commission d’enquête publique du projet d’aéroport du Grand-Ouest Notre Dame des Landes Préfecture de la Loire-Atlantique Direction de l’aménagement et de l’environnement Bureau de l’urbanisme et des sites 6, quai Ceineray – B.P. 33515 – 44035 NANTES CEDEX 1
On peut télécharger le dossier de l’enquête sur le site de la préfecture :
http://www.loire-atlantique.pref.gouv.fr/amenagement/prefet_nddl_cr.html