Nearly one hectare of allotment gardens must be destroyed for the construction of a swimming pool used as a training pool during the 2024 Olympic Games.
Early this Thursday morning, the police proceeded to “the evacuation of plots of the gardens of Aubervilliers, illegally occupied since April 30”, said the prefecture of Seine-Saint-Denis in a press release. “About fifteen occupants were evicted calmly. Only one individual was taken into custody for insulting and violent acts against the police”, she detailed.
The destruction of their makeshift facilities, built over months, began immediately. The “repair” and an “securing” places have started, to allow the construction site to start, according to the prefecture.
These allotments, a century-old enclave of 2.5 hectares at the foot of the towers, must be amputated by nearly 4,000 m² for the construction of a vast terrace adjoining this new aquatic center. The infrastructure must be used to train athletes for the Olympics, then will be open to the general public.
According to the Collective for the Defense of Workers’ Gardens in Aubervilliers, 1 hectare of gardens out of the seven cultivated is threatened (6,000 others for the construction of a Grand Paris Express station). “We witness completely disarmed the destruction of the gardens by an excavator, it is an incredible violence. We are surrounded by CRS who take us for terrorists”, testified in the morning Camille, an environmental activist present on the spot.
Equipment deemed essential for the department
“Natural and cultural heritage, island of freshness, refuge of biodiversity, tool for social ties, environmental education… the allotment gardens of Aubervilliers destroyed for a few weeks of the Olympic Games in 2024”, tweeted Julien Bayou, the national secretary of EELV.
Opponents filed an appeal on Monday against the building permit for the project. At a cost of 33.6 million euros, it is carried by the city of Aubervilliers and benefits in particular from around 10 million euros in subsidies from Solideo, the delivery company for the Olympic works. Owner of the land, Grand Paris Aménagement could not be reached. At the end of April, GPA claimed to have relocated the gardeners concerned to other neighboring plots in “privileging dialogue”.
The same month, the town hall estimated that it was “too late” to prevent the project. Mayor (UDI) Karine Franclet felt that breaking the public market would mean “4.7 million euros” of penalties and claims to have inherited this “complicated file” of its communist predecessor. In addition, the department is under-endowed with swimming pools and one in two children does not know how to swim in Seine-Saint-Denis when entering 6th grade.
Defenders of these gardens called for a demonstration at 6 p.m. in front of the town hall of Aubervilliers.
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