Failing to have started to demolish the site of the controversial deviation of Beynac, the department of Dordogne was condemned, Tuesday, July 4, by the administrative court of appeal of Bordeaux to pay a total of 489,000 euros to several associations of opponents. A new episode in the soap opera which has opposed supporters and opponents of the road bypass project for several years in this village of 500 inhabitants, ranked among the most beautiful in France.

On July 7, 2022, the judges had already condemned the community to pay a fine of 3,000 euros per day if the demolition work did not begin within six months, then 5,000 euros per day if the demolition was not completed. within one year. Nothing having started on January 8, associations opposed to the road bypass project of this very touristy village had seized the court, which examined the file on June 20.

In its judgment delivered on Tuesday, it notes that “no material start of execution of the ordered demolition has taken place”, the department having “only launched a tendering procedure for the selection of the master of work that would be responsible for choosing the modus operandi of the demolition”.

The court therefore condemns the community to pay 489,000 euros, i.e. the cumulative amount of the penalty payments over a period of 163 days between January 8, date of expiry of the six-month period, and June 20, date of the hearing. . Each of the three applicants, made up of three associations and an American company bringing together owners of castles in particular, must receive a third of this sum.

Irreconcilable positions

The bypass of Beynac, a village of 500 inhabitants ranked among the most beautiful in France, with its medieval castle perched on a cliff overlooking the Dordogne, has inflamed local spirits for three decades against the backdrop of ancient political rivalries.

Proponents of the project say they want to relieve congestion and secure the commune; the opponents, supported in particular by Stéphane Bern, claim to defend the site and the environment. The construction site had started in 2018 before being legally canceled at the end of 2019. But the bridge piers built in the bed of the river, which the future deviation was to span, are still there: this is the subject of the dispute .

The department had provisioned in its 2023 budget enough to pay one year of penalty payments, or around 1.5 million euros. However, he hoped to escape their liquidation, the time that the prefecture of Dordogne decides on a new diversion project submitted to the services of the State.

But the administrative court of appeal considered that this new file could not “justify the non-execution” of its previous decisions. In a press release, the county council announced Tuesday evening “to take note of the judgment rendered”, to which it “will comply”.

He also regrets that his request to “suspend the payment of penalty payments and to postpone them, pending the decision of the State” concerning his new project to create a “multimodal loop” in the valley de la Dordogne, “has not been received favorably at this stage”.

The department is now awaiting “the formal support of the State” for its project, making it possible to “avoid the waste of 40 million euros of public money” and to get out of this “absolute aberration”, according to its socialist president, Germinal Peiro.