Several residents of the Lunel Canal are outraged by a greenway “in agony”

Une famille de touristes Gallois se fraye un chemin sur la voie verte. Midi Libre – JPS

The track that has been connecting the Pescalune town to La Grande-Motte since 2020 appears to have been abandoned for several kilometers.

The greenway between Lunel and La Grande-Motte, opened at the end of 2020 after an investment of 1 million euros entirely financed by the Department and the State, unfortunately lives up to its name too well. The lack of maintenance means that now, this magnificent developed route, which was supposed to reflect a rapprochement between the coastal resort and the fishing town, in the same way as the current dual carriageway development of the Route de la Mer, gives the impression, four years later, of a total abandonment.

A slalom between tamarisks and reeds

A waste in this summer period when tourists are present like this Welsh family who are staying at the Bon Port campsite and have planned, this Wednesday, a bike ride along the canal. A walk during which the couple and their two children had to decide to opt for single file for several kilometres in order to make their way between the tamarisks on one side and the reeds on the other. « Originally, it was possible to pass 4 bikes abreast », says a Lunellois. Today, only an increasingly narrow trace remains for around 3 km north of the last huts.

The maintenance was carried out by cabin workers last year

« The greenway is dying and no one cares. Between the city of Lunel and the Department, the buck is being passed back and forth. No one is doing anything. Before this greenway was built, the municipal services of Lunel would come from time to time to maintain the banks, but now that's over. Last year, it was a handful of cabin dwellers who took up the secateurs and kept the path passable », complains a local resident who watches with dismay as walkers and cyclists try to “follow” the greenway through this ever more luxuriant vegetation.

The state of the canal is also in question…

« It's a disgrace. There is no longer any maintenance, neither on this greenway, nor in the canal where several trees have fallen and others threaten what constitutes a risk for boats », adds a cabin owner. Contacted by telephone, a very good connoisseur of this greenway sighs at the mention of the situation: « Lunel and Marsillargues should have signed an agreement a long time ago to ensure this maintenance. The greenway should be the same as the Alain Le Hetet sports hall, financed at the time by the Department but which the City maintains. » We can therefore hope that the cities concerned will not delay in sitting around a table, why not at the foot of a tamarisk at the Lunel cabins, before the vegetation has got the better of this gentle link between Lunel and the city of the Pyramids.

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