Battle of arguments and rain of criticism on social networks about the public inquiry into the A69 motorway. This project, which should link Castres to Toulouse over 62 kilometers, continues to cause controversy.
The A69 Castres-Toulouse motorway project continues to be debated. The public inquiry relating to environmental authorizations started on Monday November 28, 2022 and is due to close on January 11, 2023. This is the last stage before the start of work.
Throughout this period, a commission of inquiry, made up of seven commissioners of inquiry, is responsible for ensuring exchanges with the public. Meanwhile, associations in favor of this motorway project and opponents are waging a great battle in the media and on social networks.
The A69 Castres-Toulouse motorway project is totally unsuited to the mobility needs of the south of the Tarn and catastrophic on the environmental level, according to the association La Voie Est Libre. “A69, a paying motorway parallel to the national for less than 7000 users per day!”
The Free East Way launched a “surge operation of notices until the refusal of the environmental authorization”, “wherever you are, express your arguments against this ecocide project”.
Expert and independent organizations consulted on the file expressed significant criticisms of the quality of the proposed environmental assessment. Of the biodiversity experts from the CNPN (National Council for the Protection of Nature) indicate that this file “is in contradiction with national commitments in the fight against climate change”.
Cécile Argentin, president of the FNE Midi-Pyrénées adds that it is “the amazement that is imposed on reading this project, have some still not understood that times have changed? That motorways are no longer an end in themselves, let alone pouring hordes of vehicles towards the ZFE of Toulouse (low emission zone) which does everything to no longer have any within its perimeter. 62 kilometers of 2×2 lanes is not the future of a territory, on the contrary it is to divide it irremediably, to crumble its agricultural land , destroying its assets, its ecological continuities and its biological richness”.
In an article by our colleagues from La Dépêche du Midi, the president of the Via81 association, Guy Bousquet, declares that “It’s a charade, the opponents take the investigators for idiots”. The association has been campaigning for this highway for 15 years. The public inquiry? “These are proxy votes, grassroots activism. A political act of people who don’t care about the future of our territory that they don’t know and where they don’t live”.
Via81 reminds that this highway was decided “democratically” after years of consultation, debates and acclaimed by “80% of Tarnais in an Ifop poll in 2016”.
Jean Terlier, MP for the 3rd district of Tarn, takes the stage on videos with users to show the interest of the future Castres-Toulouse motorway.
“The A69 is a motorway integrated into its territory for which, as a concessionaire, we are committed to creating sustainable jobs and supporting the economic dynamism of the Tarn department. Our commitment to this infrastructure has a social dimension; the creation of 1000 jobs is the proof”explains in a press release Martial Gerlinger, CEO Atosca.
Below, the route of the future A69 motorway between Castres and Toulouse.
Jobs should primarily benefit regional companies with which the concessionaire Atosca has agreed to work for a total amount of 50 million euros.
A69 Castres-Toulouse motorway: the controversy over the ongoing public inquiry continues