The GRDF maintains its distance from the municipality of La Roche-Clermault. A gas distribution company has decided to appeal to the Versailles Administrative Court of Appeal against the decision of the Orléans Administrative Court regarding the methane boiler project planned in the municipality. According to our information, there was an appeal with the project manager.
On February 23, 2024, the court released GRDF and the head of the Contray Énergie project (1). The latter launched legal action to force the mayor of La Roche-Clermault to issue the necessary work permits for the construction of a gas pipeline between the farm and the nearest injection station in Chinon.
“We have to appeal”
For Emmanuel Lefrançois, GRDF territorial delegate, the company is located in “unprecedented situation” AND “the great paradox”. On the one hand, the project manager has authorization for his methanation unit. On the other hand, GRDF cannot build a 3.3 kilometer gas pipeline because it cannot obtain a work permit from the city hall. “Because we can’t do any work, we can’t connect it. Once we are prevented from fulfilling our mission, we must appeal”argues Emmanuel Lefrançois.
He remembers that “GRDF’s mission is to serve local communities” and that GRDF does not have “no intention of taking legal action” against his “partners”. According to him, the company has “he has never been in this situation where the mayor would prevent the connection of a methanation unit when he has the authority to do so” and the procedure “is exempt from appeal (2) “.
Jérôme Field, mayor of La Roche-Clermault, says yes “Takes note” information and specifies that it “she has not yet been informed directly by the administrative court”.
In March 2024, he declared this in our columns “The goal was never to end the project, but to relocate it”. In this case, in the business park, on the outskirts of the city, near the road and any other providers of inputs to the methanizer.
(1) Contacted, the project manager, Contray Énergie, has not yet responded at the time of writing.
(2) Emmanuel Lefrançois refers to another legal procedure: that of a collective of local residents and the association Les Familles Richlaises, who in 2020 contested the prefectural permit and the construction permit for the methanizer project. In 2022, they were rejected at first instance and appealed to the Administrative Court of Appeal in Versailles. This appeal has no suspensory effect.