Will the dirty streets that tarnish Marseille’s reputation soon be a thing of the past? After months of negotiation, the town hall of Marseille, led by Benoît Payan, and the metropolis, led by his opponent in the municipal elections Martine Vassal, have reached an agreement presented as a revolution to settle the questions of cleanliness of the second city of France. Until now, street cleaning was only piloted by the deputy to the metropolis in charge of these questions, a certain Roland Mouren, mayor of Châteauneuf-les-Martigues.
From next year, he will be added a delegate in charge of cleanliness specifically in Marseille, and from the municipal majority of Benoît Payan, according to an agreement signed by the town hall and the metropolis. The deputy mayor of Marseille Christine Juste could take on this new function, after a municipal decree and a vote in January at the next metropolitan council.
“Before, it was a bit haphazard luck”
“You just have to look at the state of cleanliness in Marseille to realize that it’s not going very well, justifies Benoît Payan. I have always said that it seemed logical to me that the city of Marseilles should take care of it. I want us to clean the streets, to take care of all these questions which, on a daily basis, rot the lives of the people of Marseilles. »
“Until now, faced with questions of cleanliness, we had no means, abounds Sophie Camard, mayor of the sector in Marseille and one of the negotiators of this convention. We did not know why such a street was cleaned and not such another. We sent things back to the metropolis, and afterwards, it was a bit haphazard. This agreement will enable us to work together to define an action plan. »
With this new interlocutor to whom to speak directly, the mayor of the sector hopes for concrete progress. “For example, I, mayor of two districts in the city center of Marseille, I consider that there is not enough hydro-stripping of the soil, explains Sophie Camard. It is a way of deep cleaning the floors. This hydro-stripping is only done two to three times a year, including once in the summer. That’s why the tar is all black in the city center of Marseille. I will therefore ask the cleanliness delegate in Marseilles to have hydro-stripping carried out more often. »
“A lookout role”
The town halls of the sector also regularly collect the grievances of the Marseillais on the times of passage of the machines which clean the streets of the Marseille city and the number of passages. “They will be able to give this information to the new delegate. We have already begun to compile this information from the sector town halls, and the city of Marseille is going to hire four or five engineers to form a technical pool and support us in our approach. »
In the agreement that 20 Minutes Marseilles obtained, the city and the metropolis agree to organize a strategic committee on these subjects every semester and a steering committee every quarter. But on the cleanliness side, for the time being, no radical change of policy in sight. “The cleanliness delegate will above all have a watchdog role, in order to control and alert on malfunctions, explains Sophie Camard. For street cleaning, which is done either by management or by delegation of public service, contracts have been signed, are still in force, and some, as if by chance, have just been renewed. As soon as they come to an end, we can look at it more closely. »
“The criticisms of the management of cleanliness in Marseille are not always justified, tackles the president of the metropolis, Martine Vassal. We have a big problem in Marseille with illegal dumping. We agreed with the mayor of Marseille to focus on that. And that does not fall within the jurisdiction of the metropolis. This comes under the mayor’s police power…” As for waste collection, its management is excluded from this agreement, and therefore remains unchanged.