When she moved in with her husband Slimane 48 years ago, “it was the countryside. There were fields of potatoes, beets, corn. We had two farms near our house. And that’s all. ” Then flanders promenade and its slew of stores
landed on the corner of his street, in 2017. “It hit us, there was nothing we could do about it! Before, we had nature, today we have Kiabi and Leroy Merlin”. The only consolation for Fatma and Slimane, the allotment gardens on rue des Martyrs, located just opposite their house. “My husband had a garden for 30 years,” she recalls, wistfully. It is the heritage of the district. »
When we meet Fatma, in January 2022, the 14,000 square meters of allotment gardens on rue des Martyrs are inaccessible. A large padlock and large chains surround the entrance. Some took the opportunity to throw their waste over the railings. A mattress has taken possession of a plot of land and lies, inert, in the rain.
A few months earlier, at the beginning of September 2021, Fatma and the fifty or so amateur gardeners who grew vegetables on rue des Martyrs watched helplessly as a bulldozer arrived. The gates have been sealed; residents asked to leave. “I had my gardens for nearly nine years. At the beginning of August, we learned that we had to leave, ”laments Cathy Vandamme, a former gardener. “It’s really disgusting!, adds his companion Guy Lemaire. They really took us by surprise! They kicked us out like dirty people…” At the origin of the expulsion: a ten-year-old conflict, where associative squabbling and stories of big money are intertwined.
“When a tenant does not pay his rent, sell your house and you will be quiet! »
It all started in 2010 when Fabien Quique, a member of the Association of Allotment Gardens of Tourcoing (AFJT) — who manages 1,000 plots in Tourcoing, Wattrelos, Mouvaux and Bondues — becomes administrator of the land located rue des Martyrs. Very quickly, he explains that he discovered “a major administrative dysfunction” within the association. A status problem concerning its members and their right to vote, calling into question the legitimacy of the president at the time, Pierre-Bernard Vercoutere. Fabien Quique gradually took over the management of the land, until he exercised total control. He then created his own organization: the Association of Gardeners of Tourcoing. The person concerned assumes, bluntly, “an associative coup d’etat”. From now on, the gardeners’ contributions (55 euros per year and per plot) are donated to his association rather than to the AFJT.
Result: Pierre-Bernard Vercoutere finds himself deprived of land and financial revenue. According to the calculation of Mediacités, the shortfall is between 2,050 and 5,050 euros per year. “We found ourselves unfairly stripped of the powers we had on the pitch,” he says. The conflict extends into the courts and Fabien Quique’s association is condemned to leave the premises in 2016. But the “squatter”, as his rival calls him, refuses to leave. It was then that the president of the AFJT had a bright idea.
“We said to ourselves: ‘Here, if we sell the land, Fabien Quique will no longer bother us! When a tenant does not pay his rent, sell your house and you will be quiet! “On July 7, 2016, a key document is then signed: a sales agreement between the National Federation of allotment and collective gardenswho has land all over France
including those of Tourcoing, and the company Conseil Aménagement Promotion Gestion. Estimated amount of the operation: 2.1 million euros. The promoter intends to install a crèche, a restaurant, an organic supermarket, a car park and offices on the plot. Only, the transaction can be done on one condition: according to the sales agreement consulted by Mediacités, the gardens of the rue des Martyrs will have to be relocated a little further west of Tourcoing, rue de Linselles, on the land of the Clinquet farm belonging to the Droulez family.
The land that we no longer want to buy
To carry out the project and pour concrete on the site of the gardens, it is necessary to overturn the administrative rules that protect the land of the Martyrs – the local urban planning plan (PLU) of the European Metropolis of Lille (MEL ) prohibited “urbanization and waterproofing”. In 2016, the city council thus proposed to the Métropole to withdraw the “JF” status, allotment gardens, of the 72 plots located rue des Martyrs.
“The city supported this project because it wanted to enable the local association to develop educational activities on the Droulez farm. For that, he needed financial subsidies, ”justified the town planning assistant Isabelle Mariage-Desreux during the municipal council on December 11. Because the takeover of the Droulez farm was to make it possible to open a garden for children. “We had a project focused on the environment. A magnificent project which was financed by the sale of the land of the Martyrs”, describes the former president of the AFJT, Pierre-Bernard Vercoutere.
But within the national federation, the project divides. So much so that the president was forced to resign in 2017. He will be replaced by the current president, Patricia Despesse, who is changing course: she no longer wishes to buy the Clinquet farm. In any case, not entirely. However, “at that time, the Droulez family wanted to sell all of its property to a single buyer. The price demanded was also far beyond the value of the property, ”explains Béatrice Ladrange, administrator at the national federation. “We should have sold additional land to finance the AFJT project. This is why we gave up buying the Droulez farm, ”adds Jean Russo, director of the federation. According to him, the cost of the project, including works, exceeded the proceeds of the sale on rue des Martyrs.
While the relocation of the gardens to rue de Linselles was aborted, it became impossible to respect the sales agreement. However, the document writes it black on white: the land of the Droulez farm had to be purchased before July 31, 2017. To make matters worse in the negotiations, the former owner of the Clinquet farm, Jean-Noël Droulez, died in November 2020. Contacted by Mediacités, his daughter, Angélique Droulez, kicks in: “I have no information to bring you. I won’t tell you more because I can’t express myself,” she explained to us over the phone.
The “octopus of the North”
In conflict with the AFJT, whose pedagogical ambitions it is far from sharing, and tired of the conflict between Fabien Quique and the AFJT – Patricia Despesse nicknamed the Rue des Martyrs case the “octopus of the North” -, the federation regains control of the land in January 2021. The AFJT is then ousted from the management of the 72 plots of the Jardin des Martyrs.
Nine months later, the fifty or so gardeners who cultivate their vegetables on the ground of the rue des Martyrs are asked to leave the premises. “Legally speaking, they were considered squatters. We had to clear the ground”, justifies Béatrice Ladrange. And for good reason: the building permit for the rue des Martyrs commercial area, filed in 2018, expires on September 17, 2021. For it to remain valid, work must begin before this date. “The bulldozer just tore up some vegetation and then it drove off,” recalls Naziha, from the collective Defense of the gardens in Tourcoingwho requested the cancellation of the building permit.
“I don’t like being fooled”
After eight months of total blockage and nearly ten years of conflict, the town hall ended up banging its fist on the table on March 5, 2022. The elected officials proposed, during the municipal council, to change the PLU once again to put back the “JF” index (allotment gardens). The same clue that they had removed a few years before to allow the sale of the land.
So why such a backlash? According to the mayor of Tourcoing, Doriane Bécue, the building permit filed on the land of the Martyrs is indeed null and void: “Between September and today, there has been no construction site opening. No work has started. The deadlock situation between the Droulez farm and the national federation does not help matters. “We have no guarantee of compensation for the 14,000 square meters rue des Martyrs on the Droulez site. Which is not acceptable. I don’t like being fooled. »
During the municipal council, the elected representatives of the majority do not mince their words. The Droulez family is accused of wanting to “make a lot of money”, when the national federation is suspected of “making money” thanks to the sale of the land.
“It’s nonsense”, reacts Jean Russo, who was informed of the decision of the town hall by Mediacités. “The federation does not need money. On the other hand, we do not want to lose any”, explains the director of the federation, who says he is “surprised and very upset” at the reversal of the town hall of Tourcoing.
The decision of the town hall, however, is the delight of the collective Defense of the gardens of Tourcoing: “We are not crying victory, we are not going to be fooled once again”, however tempers Naziha. “We must not take the decision mentioned at the municipal council as cash, also supports Jean Russo. In reality, changing a PLU is not easy. A sales agreement has also been signed. Contacted by Mediacités, Yves Plançon, the promoter of the commercial project on rue des Martyrs, did not respond to our requests. The town hall knows it, legal complications still await it. The construction site of rue des Martyrs is therefore far from being closed.
In the meantime, Jean-Marie Vuylsteker, first deputy in charge of urban renewal, continues to praise the soul of allotment gardens in the Tourquennoise identity: “They are totally part of the city’s heritage. The local association, the largest in France, continues to make the pride of politicians and residents, who were more than 36,000 to sign a petition against the concreting of rue des Martyrs. “I had three beautiful gardens. They were said to be the most beautiful,” boasts Cathy Vandamme, dislodged from her plots last September. The gardener still hopes to find her corner of greenery. His cabbages and no less than 500 leeks await him there.
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