• The Council of State has just validated the prefectural decree issued in 2015 authorizing the reopening of the coastal path of Saint-Briac, in Ille-et-Vilaine.

  • Several wealthy owners of villas bordering the trail are trying to close part of the trail, citing the risk of landslides.

  • A new route has been established and validated by the courts.

    The decision of the Council of State may come to close a legal episode of 40 years.

“This may be the end of a legal marathon”.

The mayor of Saint-Briac-sur-Mer prefers to use the conditional when he evokes the long, very long fight that he and his predecessors led to reopen the coastal path.

However, the Council of State has just ruled in favor of its municipality, validating the prefectural decree issued in 2015 to maintain continuity of the path.

Located a few kilometers west of Saint-Malo and Dinard, the charming town of Saint-Briac benefits from a steep coastline offering splendid panoramas.

Landscapes that many walkers come to admire from the coastal path.

But that some wealthy residents would have liked to keep for themselves.

For forty years,

They have sometimes succeeded, contesting the law of December 31, 1976 fixing the principle of an easement of three meters on private properties by the sea so that hikers can pass there.

Since the reopening of the trail in 2015 by the prefect of Ille-et-Vilaine, residents have almost always been rejected.

But in 2019, the administrative court of appeal of Nantes had partially canceled the prefectural decree, considering that this path represented a danger.

"The use of this path in its current configuration, without reinforcement and prior development, presents a real danger of falls linked to sudden landslides for people, in particular in groups", had concluded the court.

The jurisdiction relied on the study of an expert geologist produced by the applicants.

The Forbes family, fierce opponents

It was no doubt to preserve the safety of hikers that some owners had seen fit to erect wooden gates on the path between the beaches of La Petite and La Grande Salinette.

"It only lasted a week, the time for the procedure to be launched", recalls Mayor Vincent Denby-Wilkes, elected in 2020. The man worked with Brice Lalonde when the latter was Minister of the Environment .

Owner of one of the villas concerned, the former minister of Mitterrand was mayor of Saint-Briac from 1995 to 2008 and had argued that he was worried about the safety of his neighbor John Kerry to justify the closure of the path.

The Forbes family, from which the former US Secretary of State comes, was one of the fiercest opponents of the reopening of the famous path.

She wasn't the only one.

Another resident saw the path very close to his swimming pool, which was built without prior authorization.

“With one exception, the route established by the prefect provides serenity for residents, while keeping the path open for walkers,” assures Vincent Denby-Wilkes.

The mayor believes that the decision rendered by the Council of State validates the route.

“It is in accordance with the spirit of the law”.

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