AT Ouzouer-le-Marché (Loir-et-Cher) – main delegated municipality of the new municipality of Beauce-la-Romaine, created in 2016 – in Ouzouer, therefore, seven grandmothers ” angry “ move heaven and earth for an unmowed lawn affair. Aged 76 to 82, Danielle, Annick, Pierrette, Colette, Annie, Jacqueline and Véronique live in a housing estate of small three- and one-bedroom houses, classified as “social housing”. Built twenty years ago, the pavilions are bordered by land on which a generous grass grows. A little too generous at the moment.
Maintained until then by municipal services, the plots have been on their own for three weeks, due to a complex history of leases and intercommunality. The retirees asked the local press, wrote to the prefect, the departmental councilor, and even to Brigitte Macron. The office of the head of state replied that the president was ” sensitive “ to their “concerns”. Let’s bet that Emmanuel Macron has other fish to fry currently.
Located next to a nursing home, the housing estate on rue des Anciennes-Ecoles is reserved for people over 65. The maisonettes have raised toilets, handrails and entrance doors allowing the passage of wheelchairs. Nothing being specified, in the initial leases, on the maintenance of the exteriors, a custom was installed from the start: the size of the lawns will be done by the communal gardeners. The latter then came three times a year to pass one of the city’s ride-on mowers over the 800 square meters of land concerned. “I timed them: it only took them fifteen minutes”says Danielle Richard, the leader of the firecracker tenants.
The end of a special case
Alas, the benefits always come to an end. Erected in 2002 under the aegis of the community of municipalities (known as “de la Beauce oratorienne”), sold in 2017 to an enlarged community of municipalities (known as “des Terres du Val de Loire”), the famous pavilions were finally bought by the municipality of Beauce-la-Romaine, in July 2022. A new lease must then be drafted. In it, the responsibility for maintaining the lawns is not further specified, except that the mayor decides to put an end to the “use” in question: the rotary blades of the municipality will no longer turn at these ladies.
Two reasons for this. First: “Rental equityexplains Bernard Espugna. We have other social housing units where tenants maintain their own grounds. There can be no special case. » Second, the lack of arms (and money): “Our agents are not idle, continues the chosen one. The area of the communal territory to be maintained is 135 square kilometers, and we have seven churches. » Like that of Ouzouer-le-Marché, “around which the grass is always perfectly cut, taunts one of the refractory grannies. To my knowledge, it is not the denier of the cult that finances the shearing! »
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