Rouen city council votes symbolically against the city's motorway bypass

"It would be irresponsible to continue to support projects from the + world of before + such as the East bypass of Rouen", can we read in this motion of the EELV-Generations group approved by 46 votes in favor, including those of the mayor PS Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, and his group on the city council. Only nine votes were against, those of the opposition, said the press service of the city. No one abstained.

This vote is symbolic because it is not the city that must participate in the financing of this project if it comes to fruition but the metropolis of Rouen.

The latter committed before the 2020 municipal elections to finance it to the tune of 66 million euros, out of a total of 886 million euros.

But Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol spoke out against this project during the municipal campaign, while he was "for" when he chaired the former Haute-Normandie region. Monday he confirmed to the press for the first time since his election as mayor and president of the metropolis that he had "not changed his mind" since the municipal elections.

The prefect asked by mail to the communities to "request confirmation by deliberation before the end of February of their financial commitment". The main funder of the project, the state, has said it will not impose the project against local will.

Launched over 40 years ago, this project involves the construction of 41,5 km of motorway linking the A28 and the A13. It would unblock Rouen by "diverting the thousands of trucks" which "have no other solution than to cross the city center of Rouen", according to an advertising campaign by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the metropolis .

Its opponents stress that it would lead in particular to the production of 50.000 tonnes of CO2 per year, ie the production of 50 days of CO2 in an area of ​​700.000 inhabitants, and that "there is a less expensive" and "more sustainable" alternative. : the West bypass.

The Normandy region (centrist), for its part, confirmed to AFP that it was maintaining its funding at 157 million. And the president LREM of Seine-maritime said he was "in a personal capacity" in favor of maintaining departmental funding, in a press release.