The Mayor's Speech at his Pledge Ceremony, January 2011

"Apart from the achievements in 2010 that have just been presented to you, the key issue, the town council's big political decision, in the noble sense of the word political, was to join our village to the Community of the Agglomeration of Greater Narbonne.

This choice, that has just overturned more than fifty years of established inter-communal practices, was not taken lightly. The debates were lively, long, serious and underpinned by all the necessary legal and financial studies. Our municipal team made up of women and men expressing a variety of opinions, political, cultural and professional, voted unanimously for the dissolution of the Community of Communes.

The vote was equally unanimous to call for the creation of the SIVU (Syndicat Intercommunal à Vocation Unique) managing social work by means of an intercommunal social work centre. The latter will implement policies in support of the elderly and children/young people, like home help, a canteen, child-minding before and after school, and a leisure centre for the long and short holidays.

This reform of administrative areas was sought by the government. The law was voted in at the end of 2010. It does not entirely suit me because it does nothing to simplify the multi-layered characteristics of the administration; it grants territorial dominance to the urban over the rural by depriving the latter of financial resources and re-allocating them preferentially to towns and their agglomerations.

That is how the French Republic is made. Public life marches in time to the rhythm of periodical elections that provide the forum for democratic expression. If people are discontented with this law, called for by a government that they may have voted for at the last presidential and legislative elections, then they would do well to remember this discontent. That is what institutional Democracy is all about: approval or sanction when the votes are cast.

In parallel, there exists participative democracy that allows citizens to express their views but it is up to institutional democracy to make the decision.

From the time that we understood our position and the law was passed, we had two choices : either to close in on ourselves and say "at Bize, we are waiting to see which trains are leaving the station so as to choose which one to catch, and then, on condition that it hadn't reached high speed, and at risk of watching them all pass us by!" or to think ahead and join a territorial community that is going to let us continue to improve our commune and implement plans that are good for all the inhabitants of Bize.

We opted for action not passivity. We considered it preferable to improve the attractiveness of our village so as to create a favourable environment for its economic, social and cultural components. This is so that it can take its proper place and receive the recognition it deserves at the heart of the other communes of Greater Narbonne.

We chose to give all the residents of Bize, from 2011 onwards, access to the best services, be they cultural or in the area of public transport but equally in terms of enabling us to initiate development both of agriculture and tourism, bringing economic development with them as would be the case with the return to service of the Narbonne/Bize railway line so as to provide transport for routine travellers, freight and tourism.

Last Updated (Saturday, 21 January 2012 08:15)