In Lespignan, shopkeepers are up in arms against the establishment of a large store

Le permis de construire a été déposé et validé. Il va être modifié. Laurent François – Midi Libre

In Lespignan, the small shopkeepers in the town centre feel they are losing their social role, which is essential to the town, with the arrival of an Intermarché.

In Lespignan, the shopkeepers in the village are up in arms against the establishment of a large Intermarché store on the Route de Fleury. They fear for their turnover. The shopkeepers' association “En toute Franchise” has decided to take charge of their defence and is moving forward.

“This case demonstrates once again the need to put the precautionary principle back into force against the malfeasance of certain elected officials, assures its representative, Martine Donnette, in a press release, namely the town planning certificate in all building permit files for large areas and in commercial exploitation notice application files in order not to burden craft traders with the costs of the procedure to fight against the excesses of power of certain mayors who do not hesitate to grant projects when they are incompatible with the rules of land law.” And she adds: “The mayor of Lespignan, to promote the establishment of a large surface area, did not hesitate to violate the rules of its PLU."

The project leader has modified his building permit to calm things down

In order not to compromise the project to set up this large surface area which should be installed in place of the old cooperative wine cellar of Lespignan, the project leader has chosen to remove the service station which was planned while waiting for everything to be back in order. “We have modified the PLU so that it complies with the needs of such an installation and for the moment the file is in the prefecture, in the hands of the specialists of the departmental directorate of territories and population. We are not working against anyone, but for the good of all. Even the project leader is making concessions to settle in our commune. This is still proof that it has a certain economic interest.”

As for the gas station, you should know that there has not been one in the commune for four decades. It might be of interest to the residents of Lespignan if the price of fuel remains reasonable there.

Following an appeal to the administrative court, the mayor had to ask his council to modify the PLU by issuing a modified building permit for this large area and thus “erase the infractions”.

“It is a good thing for the community”

A good sport, Jean-François Guibbert, the mayor, is not panicking in the least. For him, the establishment of a large store in his town is proof of the attractiveness of Lespignan, which is gaining residents every year. It is also a way to prevent them from going elsewhere to do their shopping.

A citizen consultation

“We have done nothing illegal and it is the services of Domitienne who have instructed the file. A study is underway to find out if this project is contestable. We have been criticized for not being transparent, but we submitted the requested documents as soon as we became aware of them. There was no need to use the services of the Commission for Access to Administrative Documents (Cada) for this. Finally, if necessary, I will set up a citizen consultation to find out whether or not the population wants this large surface area. There is no need to add fuel to the fire in this case. I think that everyone has something to gain from this large surface area. To calm things down, even the project leader has chosen not to build his service station. Now it is the departmental directorate of territories and the sea that is following this case."

" Who will give credit to customers,"

For their part, the traders in the town centre feel that they are being killed economically. "It is not Intermarché that will give credit to its customers. That is our case. From the 20th of the month, if we do not play this game, some will have nothing left to eat. We have an essential social role within this town. Nobody wants to admit it."

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