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8 mins
While work on the A69 motorway has begun, the Renaissance deputy for Tarn, Jean Terlier, insists on its usefulness in opening up the territory. For her part, Aminata Niakate, spokesperson for Europe Écologie Les Verts, believes that this project is madness for the environment.
The highway of discord. The project to create the A69 in Occitanie outrages environmentalists who denounce the loss of hundreds of hectares of agricultural land and an attack on biodiversity. According to Jean Terlier, Renaissance deputy for Tarn, guest in Franceinfo 12/13, it is not a question of hundreds of agricultural hectares, but of“a route of 53 kilometers including 100 hectares of land which should be artificialized”. “We are going to replant five times more trees than we cut down. (…) It is a project which has been considered by an entire territory for many years with a declaration of public utility since 2018”he adds.
Is the local economy the key?
According to Aminata Niakate, spokesperson for Europe Écologie Les Verts, also a guest on the franceinfo set, this project was thought about too long ago. “Why not rehabilitate and develop the existing line?”she asks, describing it as“ecological aberration” the creation of this highway line parallel to the already existing national road. “According to my figures, 370 hectares of land will be artificialized and thousands of trees cut down”, she specifies. To open up the territory, she calls for more development of the local economy, declaring that the highways are pushing to leave.