From rugby field to cemetery, there is only one step? In Voisins-le-Bretonneux, it is about to be crossed since the town hall confirms that a call for tenders will be launched by the end of April to find a contractor who will transform the 5,200 m2 of the stadium du Champ-du-Loup into a cemetery with some 600 places. “It is one of the rare places in the town where there is no wetland, is still surprised Alexandra Rosetti, the UDI mayor of the town. Maybe because she was trampled on for years by rugby players,” she jokes.
If the time is to smile, the file of the new cemetery of Voisins-le-Bretonneux, 11,000 inhabitants, is not a long calm river. While a first site had been chosen, “a little used park, without games for children”, in July 2020, it’s a cold shower. “After launching studies by a landscape architect as well as the mandatory soil studies for the construction of a cemetery, I learned that a certified hydrogeologist had to validate the project”, recalls Alexandra Rosetti, at the head of the town since 2014. However, it is not viable because of the water table too close. “I regret not having had the info earlier, it would have saved me from getting angry with everyone. »
A cemetery almost full
The choice of the municipal team is therefore on this rugby ground of Champ-du-Loup, “another of our options from the start”, specifies the city councilor. Considered for a time, the alternative of an inter-municipal cemetery was quickly abandoned. “The other mayors have their own problems with their cemeteries and did not want to pool anything. And then, I realized that part of the population was sensitive to the fact of being buried in the town of Voisins, ”she adds.
However, on the current main cemetery, “near the Carrefour Market”, places are running out. “We are already saying to ourselves that we have to remove hedges on the right and on the left, it is starting to be very full”, comments Alexandra Rosetti. And for the one who surrounds the church, the mayor of Voisins-le-Bretonneux has other projects. “I would like that in the future, distant of course, we manage to transform this small cemetery into a park. That the newlyweds who wish to celebrate their nuptials in our beautiful church no longer have to slalom between the graves. Not very Instagrammable indeed.
“I did not kill the club”
On the side of the rugby club, “the players were fair play, very understanding, she notes. It’s a very little used ground, one or two evenings a week for the senior team and as it’s an inter-municipal club, he assured me that he had fallback solutions, that he could manage without . I did not kill the club. And this project adds a non-negligible expansion option: the football field with free access, at the bottom of the Champ-du-Loup plot, which for the time being must be kept as it is, is also located outside the wetlands of the municipality.
“There is no more public land in Voisins,” blows Alexandra Rosetti. Honestly, if we couldn’t have built it there, I don’t know how we would have done it. Today, the file is well validated despite its proximity to a forest of more than 100 hectares. “Luckily we were able to negotiate with the DDT [direction départementale des territoires] des Yvelines to be a little closer to the edge of the forest than the regulation 50 meters because I had nowhere else to put it. »
If the project to 1.5 million euros has taken a little delay, the city councilor is reassured to have found a solution. “I have to bury my dead!” she exclaims. I hope to start work this summer for an opening in mid-2024. »