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Monday, 10 March 2008 |
In the last municipal elections in 2001,
more than 20 English-speaking expatriates
were voted on to their local councils. How
do they look back at their term of office, what
have they learnt and are they running again?
Vivian Hart found it very rewarding to serve
on the council of Trausse-Minervois (pop.
500+,) in the Aude, where she has lived for
more than 27 years. In spite of some initially
“tentative reactions” to having a British woman
on the conseil municipal, she feels she did help
breathe some life back into the village by
setting up the Amicale Socio-Culturelle. She
warns any hopefuls: “Brush up on your
acronyms if you have any intention of keeping
up during council meetings, and brace yourself
for vast amounts of bureaucracy and slow
decision-making.”
Vivian has decided not to run again this
year, not because she didn’t enjoy it: “I just felt
it was time to make
way for the younger
generation, though I
will miss the
position and my
colleagues.”
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Monday, 10 March 2008 |
With the municipal elections on March 9 and 16, Anglophone candidates reveal their reasons and their hopes. Those who have already served on their local councils look back on a mixed bag of hindsight.
Every list of candidates must now
have ‘sexual parity’, that is, equal
numbers of men and women.
Women with the time and inclination
are often hard to come by,
particularly in the smaller, rural
communes, which goes some way to
explaining the female preponderance among the
candidates featured here. Finding candidates of
either sex is a growing problem anyway:
volunteers prepared to invest in their
communities are scarce.
In some areas, there are now so many
British residents that the maires feel the need of
someone who speaks their language and can
represent their particular issues. The record
number of British candidates could be in the
“capital of Dordogneshire”, Eymet, where five
candidates are running on three different lists.
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Monday, 10 March 2008 |
A new scheme for an aqueduct to increase the water
resources of the drought-stricken Var is already stirring
comment, before the feasibility study has even begun. Some
have demanded special conditions; others oppose it outright.
The aqueduct would run from a point on the Canal de
Provence southeast of Aix-en-Provence to join the Argens
river system some 50km further east. It won’t have much in
common with the Roman-built Pont du Gard – an aqueduct
can also be a canal or, in this case, an underground, manmade
watercourse whose flow is regulated by pumping
stations. The project will only affect a strip of land less than
25-30m wide, mostly alongside the existing N7 and A8 roads.
Unbridled development can be blamed for a declining
water table, and droughts and watering bans have become
increasingly severe in recent years. Much of the criticism of
the aqueduct scheme comes from those who worry about its
impact on local farming, yet it is unlikely to be worse than
the growing water shortages.
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Monday, 10 March 2008 |
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Monaco’s government is giving grants to residents wishing to
install solar heating systems in their homes. The grant,
capped at a ceiling of €30,000, amounts to 30% of the total
installation cost, including the purchase of the equipment. It
is intended to help people replace existing heating systems
using fossil fuels. Applications must be accepted before work
starts and payment comes once the work is complete.
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Monday, 10 March 2008 |
A giant Easter egg hunt! Children (and
adults, of course) can search for the
20,000 chocolate eggs hidden in the grounds
of the Parc La Belle on March 23 and 24.
Emmanuel Le Grelle can afford to gloat.
After the success of his Vallée des Singes
monkey reserve, he took over the
management of the 15ha Parc La Belle, a
floral and exotic plant park in nearby Magné.
Not content with beauty on the ground, he
was inspired to build hotel rooms in the sky –
treehouses.
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