• The owners of huts fear for the future, in the Hérault: due to their installation in areas with a fragile environment, certain beach concessions could, in the coming years, not be renewed.

  • For local elected officials, they are nevertheless essential.

    For the attractiveness of the Hérault coast, for the economy, for employment, and the promotion of local products.

  • Several Hérault associations are fighting to ensure that sites with a remarkable environment are rid of these large private beaches.

Rough sea warning, for the straw huts.

After the prefecture asked them to lower the sound, in 2019, and two summers marked by the Covid-19, the private beaches now fear for their future, in the Hérault.

The State has recently hardened its tone: due to a grain of sand in the law, there is no longer any question of the coasts, with their fragile environment, hosting food and fiestas.

At La Grande Motte and Carnon, if, for the moment, the dealers have been able to install their mattresses and their parasols, some remain skeptical about the future of their profession.

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, one of them is breathing a little: his concession is still running for a few years.

“So, for the moment, we are calm,” he confides.

And after ?

If tomorrow, despite the efforts made, “the beach is taken away from us, we are screwed, we have nothing left, he laments.

We are not retired yet.

We will point to unemployment.

»

The straw huts are "synonymous with the attractiveness and vitality of the coast"

Due to the reserve period due to the presidential elections, the Hérault prefecture did not respond to requests from

20 Minutes

about the straw huts.

Last June, his services indicated to Hérault Tribune that the objective was to defend “a free and natural beach, without having concessions every 300 meters”.

“The same goes for the preservation of the coasts.

There is no question of making the beach an economic and privatized playground, even if a balance has to be found with the issues of attractiveness.

It should be noted that catering was not initially planned for private beaches.

In recent years, there has been a shift towards the organization of parties, sometimes resembling nightclubs, not authorized on the beaches.

»

The elected officials are in favor of the installation of private beaches on the sand.

“They are synonymous with the attractiveness and vitality of the coast,” indicate the services of the town hall of La Grande Motte.

In this town, very popular in summer, six private beaches are open this season at Grand Travers, Couchant and Point Zéro.

As much as last year.

But next year, some may well not be able to unfold the deckchairs.

And that, for the municipality, would be a disaster.

Their disappearance would be “in total contradiction with our permanent search for quality, the engine of tourist attractiveness.

Knowing that we are in competition with neighboring countries located in the Mediterranean, especially Spain,” says La Grande Motte.

The disappearance of private beaches would be a loss for employment, point out the elected officials

It would also be a huge blow for employment, already struggling in the Hérault.

"A beach concession represents an average of 20 full-time equivalents for 6 months", points out the municipality at Les Pyramides.

The disappearance of straw huts, whose revenue is allocated "exclusively by the municipalities to the maintenance and cleaning of the maritime public domain, property of the State", would also entail, continues the town hall of La Grande Motte, "a deadweight loss for municipal finances.

We can also, this year, take it easy in six private beaches in Carnon, the neighboring town.

As much as in 2021. Yvon Bourrel (various left), the mayor of Mauguio-Carnon, believes that his city "has always been very reasonable".

“We didn't want to put too much pressure on the coast,” says the elected official.

However, Yvon Bourrel does not imagine Carnon without straw huts.

“I am campaigning for the maintenance of this economy which also makes it possible to highlight local products, the short circuit, viticulture, market gardening, etc.

“, Continues the mayor of Mauguio-Carnon, who fears a loss “for the local economy”, in particular for employment.

A court decision against straw huts

But on the coast, the straw huts are not unanimous.

The Grande Motte Environnement association is particularly fiercely opposed to it.

With others, she won her case, last September, before the administrative court of Montpellier, on the illegality of certain private beaches, on the side of La Grande Motte.

The justice thus indicated, in its judgment, that "the Motte du Couchant and the beaches of the Grand Travers of the commune of La Grande Motte have the quality of remarkable space of the coast, on which constructions carried out in within the framework of beach concessions (…) as they currently exist”.

A small bar, yes.

A small snack, yes.

Nothing else.

A fight for the preservation of the environment and the well-being of local residents, we confide to the association Grande Motte Environnement.

" One does not go without the other.

»

Montpellier

Montpellier: Will the Lido beach car park remain free this summer?

Planet

Montpellier: The straw huts of La Grande Motte are illegal

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