“No one wants areas dedicated to travelers”: intermunicipalities are struggling to fulfill their obligations in Hérault

Travelers often have to be evicted from land they illegally occupy. Archive Midi Libre – GIACOMO ITALIANO

Travelers often have to be evicted from land they illegally occupy. Free Midi – GIACOMO ITALIANO

To prevent Travelers from settling illegally on specific areas, a plan to welcome them was put in place five years ago. The results show progress but there are still places missing. State of play.

For lack of space, travelers settle down wherever they can. Recently, land adjacent to businesses in Saint-Jean-de-Védas has been illegally occupied. Evacuations are sometimes long, which causes a certain exasperation on the part of those who see their plot squatted.

To remedy this concern, a departmental plan intended for the reception and housing of travelers in Hérault was adopted there is five years old.

Important requirements

During the last meeting of the Travelers' Advisory Commission a few days ago, the prefect of Hérault, François-Xavier Lauch recalled "l& rsquo;importance of complying with the requirements established in the plan to ensure rapid implementation of the administrative procedure for evacuating illicitly settled Travelers."< /p>

Places created in dedicated areas

The intermunicipalities have therefore committed themselves through this plan to putting in place structures to be able to welcome travelers. They have until December 31, 2024 to achieve their objectives.

The different reception structures

To allow Travelers to settle in, the H’rault department must set up four structures to accommodate them.

– The permanent reception areas with a capacity of from 10 &agrav; 50 places for a length of stay which varies from a few days to a few days. several months.

– The high traffic areas intended for large groups, with a capacity of from 100 à 200 places for a shorter length of stay.

– The family plots for sedentary people whose habitat remains the caravan.

– Adapted habitats for sedentary people with ordinary housing associated with &agrav; a place for the caravan.

The report established by the prefecture shows a significant increase in the number of places. The decided objectives reach 72%. To date, 386 places in permanent reception areas exist in Hérault out of 578 planned. The figure rises to 1,445 for high-traffic areas compared to 1,945 planned. For family plots and adapted housing out of the 70 places planned, only 16 have been implemented.

The determined objective is 2 593 places, with 1 547 existing, so 1 046 are missing.

Some intermunicipalities are late

Among the intermunicipalities which have not met the planned objectives, Montpellier Métropole Méditerranée is logically in the lead since the number of places to be created is higher. Out of 924 planned, only 650 have been established, so 274 places are missing to be created.

For the Pays de Lunel, 180 are missing out of the 220 planned, for the Grand Pic Saint-Loup there are 8 missing out of the objective of 24. As for the Vallée de l&rsquo ;Hérault and in Lodévois and Larzac there are 16 missing out of the 16 planned for each of the intermunicipalities.

During the meeting, calendars were set so that these places could be created.

Hard work

For Jean-Pierre Rico, delegate to the Traveler reception areas for the Montpellier Metropolis, the work is not so simple to achieve the objectives but he is confident of meeting them from here the end of the year, the time allotted to him to complete this project.

"Work on the major passage area of ​​Juvignac is in progress. This concerns around 180 places. Despite the upcoming closure of the Bionne area requested by the State and the wait for the PLUi, the local intercommunal town planning plan for the Grammont site, we should achieve 92% of the objectives by the end of the year.

And the community advisor in charge of the file would like to emphasize: "We were the area which had the most objectives. We will have truly lived up to our commitments."

And to conclude : "It’s not so simple to find municipalities that are willing to accept this type of area, it’s even extremely difficult. Nobody wants them around their house. But we're getting there."

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