After having taken over the Auxerre velodrome for a long time, caravans are illegally installed since May on the grounds of the Rugby Club Auxerrois, first near the old premises and then increasingly near the ground of honour. About fifty families are there. Conscious of hindering the club, the travelers indicate that they have no choice because reception sites are lacking in Auxerrois.
More than 20 years late for the high-traffic area
“They would like us to leave but where to go?“, asks Pascal, one of the inhabitants of the caravans installed near the rugby pitches. “What we would like is a real location“, he confirms, specifying that those which exist are “too small“. The agglomeration of Auxerre is, in fact, still not equipped with a large passage area, whose capacity can accommodate 200 caravans, although this has been compulsory since 2000 for municipalities with more than 5,000 inhabitants. A development project is under study within the agglomeration. Three fields, whose locations are kept secret, have been pre-selected.
A community fed up with constantly moving
Constantly chased from one point to another of the urban community, Travelers would like to be able to settle down without having to move away. “We are from Auxerre, it’s our commune, that’s why we don’t leave“, indicates Pascal, present “almost all year” in Auxerre. He expects to receive yet another formal notice to leave a place of installation at the start of the school year. “It’s been going on for years, there’s never been a solution except for trials and then leaving”, he says. However, the community says it is ready, according to him, for concessions. “We are ready to pay for water and electricity for a stable place to park“, on the model of the Toucy road area, says Pascal.
A situation that tenses elected officials
Pending the decisions of the agglomeration community on possible development projects, some elected require more firmness against illegal installations. “I am very worried because on the velodrome we witnessed a massacre of the installations“, alarmed Isabelle Poifol-Ferreira, opposition municipal councilor. Damage and theft of equipment belonging to the Rugby Club Auxerrois are already to be deplored, according to her, on the site where the caravans are currently installed. “The users of these facilities suffer and will continue to suffer if nothing is done. I wonder how far we’ll let them go without doing anything“, wonders finally Isabelle Poifol-Ferreira.