A new wind farm should see the light of day on the edge of the town of Vay next October. The project of the company P & T was finally validated by the administrative court of appeal of Nantes which canceled in June the decree of refusal of the prefect. A new wind turbine that everyone has opposed for years.
Starting with the locals. “It’s a bit revolting. We wonder why there was this reversal of the situation”, protests Fred a resident. I have to say that the project was first rejected by the town hall in 2015. The company still files a file with the prefecture in 2020 for an application for environmental authorization. The prefect had thus dismissed the request in February 2021 before being in turn challenged by the administrative court of appeal.
We don’t want to suffer
“The inhabitants say no, the investigating commissioner says no, the prefect says no. We believe that in the end, our opinion is not listened to”, deplores Jean-Michel Lebeau. Especially since the spokesperson for the local residents’ collective is directly concerned because this 180-meter-high wind turbine will be 500 meters from his house. “With a wind turbine like that, there is necessarily a notion of disorder linked to noise, an has chosen to live in a rural town for its landscapes. And there, we find ourselves distorting them. There are questions about fauna and flora and also on safety because it is very close to a secondary road”he adds.
A place in the town that Marie-Chantal Gauthier, the mayor of Vay, wanted to preserve. “We are not an anti-wind municipality since we already have a park and we were ready to welcome another. On the other hand, we wish to be partly master of the project and not undergo this kind of implantation.” The elected also has across the throat, the justification of justice to validate the project. “The judge expressed the fact that we do not have a quality urban landscape. It is shocking. The lack of consideration for the rural world seems to me difficult to hear. And then I think that the world of wind power should do a bit of housekeeping because in this way we risk devaluing wind power.”
But Vay still has the hope that the prefect will appeal to the Council of State. He has until August 24 to do so. Otherwise it will be the mayor and its inhabitants who will do it. The fight in any case is preparing. A demonstration is planned in the town on September 10.