They decided to “prevent as much as possible” the progress of work on the future A69 motorway, between Castres and Verfeil, which kicked off on Monday. Opposed to the construction of this paying axis which should make it possible to save twenty-three minutes of travel between the sub-prefecture of the Tarn and the Pink City, the militants of Extinction Rebellion again took action this Wednesday morning, on the town of Teulat, on the border of Tarn and Haute-Garonne.
While a company mandated by the Atosca dealer began to cut down pines and cedars on the axis on Monday, two environmental activists decided to climb one of the trees on Wednesday to try to slow down the site while the loggers were busy around it. They are supported in their action by the citizen collective “La Voie Est Libre”, which has long been opposed to this infrastructure and which denounces “a forced passage”.
A reservation on the cost of the toll
This is not the first action on the ground by activists against this project deemed “ecocide”. The launch of the site comes a few days after the publication of the environmental authorizations for this project issued by the prefects of Haute-Garonne and Tarn last Thursday. Prefectural decisions that several associations for the defense of the environment and residents of the future highway have decided to attack before the administrative court. And for this, they rely on a reserve of the public inquiry commission responsible for assessing its environmental impact which requires lowering the cost of the toll by 33%. She also pointed out that the project entailed a significant loss of agricultural and natural land, “incompensable” according to the investigators.