The collective let us Save the valley of the Dordogne (ASVD) may blow. The Council of State decided on Friday 28 September to suspend the road works started in February in the valley of the Dordogne, even though significant sums have already been spent. The site must allow the realization of a workaround for 3.5 kilometres around the village of Beynac. A project which, according to the highest court of the administrative order, does not respond to «an imperative reason of overriding public interest».
In its decision, the State Council recalls in particular the presence of protected animal and plant species: mammals, reptiles, fish, amphibians, birds or insects. Their habitat can be damaged only in case of strict necessity. The advisors considered that if there are traffic problems in the summer, as the defending of his side in the departmental council, which steers the work, they cannot be imputed only to the density of tourists attracted in the village in perigord.
The court also decides a payment of an amount to the different associations: 1500€ to the Society for the protection and development of nature in the Sud-Ouest (Sepanso), 1500€ in the ASVD and 3000€ at The Demeure Historique, an association heritage.
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«It is inconceivable that the administrative court does not follow the assessment by the supreme court», a delighted Jean-Philippe Maginot, lawyer associations and the city hall of Beynac, which opposes the project of the department. The applicants had brought before the Council of State after having been rejected several times in the beginning of the year in their query against the permissions work.
For several years, the opposition is organized against this project led by the county council. Classified as Unesco, area of biodiversity, the «valley of the six castles» is a tourist mecca. The objective of the diversion is to improve traffic conditions around the village of Beynac, a jewel of the Perigord.
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For opponents, the project is unnecessary and destructive, as much as the traffic jams of Beynac is no longer topical. They want to proof the findings of a study conducted in August 2018 after the widening of the existing road. The controversy was further exacerbated in September after the construction vehicles have degraded a basin of the gallo-roman period to Castelnaud-la-Chapelle in the Dordogne.