Reunions de Quartier

 After the chaos caused by the lack of information which resulted in a petition asking for the Mayors funding to be pulled - that one, way back - the Mayor has called regular meetings with each part of Esperaza to talk about whatever we want to talk about.
 Nice notion.
Today was the turn of the centre of town, thats me and my neighbours; off we went at 10.30 to the MJC.
I thought it rather a good turn out at about 100 people. One friend said that it was poor given that it was the centre of town. Whatever; it was lively.

Here is our leader, Georges Revert with some of his team - listening. They concientiously took questions from all over the floor and chief topic was traffic. No-one likes it, in a nutshell. Cars are fast, cars are dangerous, there isnt enough legal parking. Me, I hate it all plus the big lorries - when I said so everyone agreed. There was massive agreement all round, in fact, plus fears for the wheelchair users who are forced to use the roads because the pavements are unusable due to parked cars, tree roots and simple non-existance of pavement.

For one insane moment I thought our leader would suggest banning pedestrians. He didn't. He didn't offer any direction except that traffic calming measures cost too many sous and that the young were uncivil. (Incivilite? Perhaps it has other connotations...)

It was something of a theme, this call to address incivilite. The mayor agreed with all our difficulties and rather threw the ball back at us.

 Questions were raised about a well-known dog - not Lily, phew - who barks constantly and disturbs the neighbourhood. The owner as it happens in on the Mayors council though no-one mentioned her name :) A petition has been signed against the dog, the council addressed, the gendarmes told and some little steps (electric collars) taken but actually nothing can be done, said the Mayor - except to keep the process going, to keep complaining to the owner. Very wearing.

 

                      Heres Mayor Georges, in statesmanlike black and Bernard Laurens, his money-man.

 Don't want to minute the meeting so heres a quick precis:

Building starts this year on the Maison de Sante.

Moto's, their noise, speed and nastiness on the mountain, will be addressed.

The Gendarmes have had a directive to address incivilite.

Camp site is being renovated to a three star level - 10 new showers and disabled facities

An elderly lady who was afraid to go out at night asked for surviellance cameras, a call that was ignored by the council and greated with silence by the townsfolk, thank heaven.

Security is an issue. It was clear early on that this is now a town of older and nervous people. Lots of complaints against the young, against the hippies, against those that urinate in corners, tear up lotto tickets and leave them in the streets, let their dogs loose to shit everywhere, take drugs in the square.

Most people were clear and to the point. Most had ideas; if there can't be pavements, paint white lines and make safe pathways. If the corners are treated as urinoirs, disinfect them from time-to-time.

It was apparent that the Mayor had heard it all before. With luck the possible draconian 'protective' measures will cost too much to implement - I think its safe to say that the Brits enjoy the freedoms of this little place and the downsides are as nothing compared to the cities most of us have come from.

We'll see. Anyway a nice concluding speech from the Conseille Generale bloke said that we can join  the Petites Freres de les Pauvres and visit old people who've been abandoned by their families (?), that Micro-Credit is available if people need to buy for instance a fridge or need help with housing and that if we are perplexed we should ask at the town hall and stop small problems becoming big ones. Amen to that.