About 150 people, farmers, elected officials or residents, met Friday in Saint-Aubin-en-Bray (Oise), at the initiative of the FNSEA, in support of a local farmer sentenced to pay 120,000 euros in damages to local residents who complain about the noise and the smell of his cows. Vincent Verschuere, a 33-year-old cattle farmer, was sentenced on March 8 by the Amiens Court of Appeal for “abnormal neighborhood disturbances”, because of olfactory and noise pollution from his farm. This trial was closely followed by the agricultural world, which fears that it will set a precedent in disputes between residents and farmers.
Targeted neo-rurals
“It’s putting your finger in the gears. Tomorrow, will we still have the right to drive a tractor at the times we want?” Asked Luc De Zutter, a farmer near Saint- Aubin-en-Bray. Neo-rurals were widely targeted during Friday’s speeches. “We cannot come and live in the countryside and ask that the activity stop. Life in the countryside is tractors passing by, the chirping of birds, roosters, the sound of cows”, a launched Christiane Lambert, president of the FNSEA.
“More and more young farmers are coming to see us because they can’t get their building permit, even without an exemption!” Insisted the president of young farmers in Oise, Gwenaëlle Desrumaux. The legal battle between Vincent Verschuere and a group of nine residents has been going on for more than 10 years.
Fear of having to put “the key under the door”
In 2010, he invested 600,000 euros to expand his farm, in the heart of the village, by building two sheds, including a stall, with an area of 2,800 m². He had obtained a prefectural exemption, the hangars being less than 100 m from the first dwellings.
Local residents, complaining of olfactory and noise pollution from its 260 cattle, took the case to court. The Court of Appeal did not order the demolition of the sheds, but asked the breeder to find “technical solutions” to reduce the nuisance. “I made quotes to soundproof part of the building and redo the ventilation: there is enough for 100,000 euros”, laments the breeder who fears having to put “the key under the door”. Present on site, the president of the Hauts-de-France region Xavier Bertrand promised that in the event of “cash flow problems”, “the region will respond”.