Mayor attacks Grand Paris plan

MAYOR Of Paris Bertrand Delanoë has demanded that the government withdraw current plans for developing Le Grand Paris (Greater Paris).

The idea involves schemes to consolidate the wider Paris area as a “world-class city”, notably an automatic metro system for the Ile-de-France, expected to cost €20.5 billion as well as architectural schemes. A Société du Grand Paris would be set up to oversee it.

Le Grand Paris would include the Ile-de-France and even extend out to Normandy, to include the Port of Le Havre, the government has said. A law introducing the scheme is meant to be presented on October 7.

However Mr Delanoë, a Socialist, described the government’s methods as “brutal” and said: “What’s being planned is the state taking into its own hands practically the whole of public politics in the Paris area.”

The mayor is not totally opposed to the idea, but wants the government to go back to the drawing board and consult with local politicians more.

The mayor’s reservations are shared by his colleagues on the left. Speaking for the Socialist group in the mairie Jean-Pierre Caffet said the project reflected “authoritarian town planning,” adding that “the state wants to mark out areas of territory, as it pleases, where it can do what it likes.”

UMP member Jean-François Lamour said there was “no question of a centralised state management” of the metropolis.

Photo: Marie-Lan Nguyen