The Toulouse Administrative Court of Appeal confirmed the absence of an obligation for the State and local authorities to ensure the protection of camping facilities. Public authorities are not obliged to carry out work to protect beaches and dunes to deal with erosion.
On November 23, 2018, four companies operating camping facilities, near Béziers, on the territory of the coastal town of Vendres (Hérault) seized the Prime Minister, the mayor of Vendres, the mayor of the neighboring town of Valras-Plage and the president of the community of communes La Domitienne. They asked them to carry out work to protect the Vendres-Ouest beach and the dune behind which their facilities are located.
“No text imposes to ensure the protection of properties by the sea against the action of water”
Faced with their silence, they had seized the administrative court of Montpellier which had rejected this legal action on December 1, 2020. Seized in second instance, the administrative court of appeal of Toulouse confirmed this judgment.
“The court recalled that no text imposed on the State and local authorities to ensure the protection of properties located by the sea against the natural action of the waters”, specifies the judges. “Neither an old law of September 16, 1807 relating to the draining of marshes still in force, nor the environmental code provide for such an obligation for public persons implicated by camping companies. »
Against further artificialization of the coastline
It was also based on studies carried out by the State services on the evolution of the coastline in this same sector. These recommend not to build new protective structures so as not to disturb the sedimentary work by additional artificialization of the coast.
The four campsite operators still have the possibility of bringing the case before the Council of State, the highest French court. But it judges cases on the form (if the law is respected) and not on the merits.