Shaved memories. Tuesday, a kind of memory drama played out in the seaside town by Zuydcoote, near Dunkirk, in the North. In less time than it takes to tell, construction machinery has knocked down the building of the former railway station of the maritime sanatorium. Except that no one was aware of the disastrous fate that awaited this place loaded with memories for the inhabitants of the town: neither the city, nor the owner of the place.
It was a great uproar that alerted the coastal guards on Tuesday morning, around 8 am. Installed in the North farm, in Zuydcoote, they did not take long to get to the place where the noise was coming from. But when they arrived, it was already too late: the railway stop, built at the beginning of the 20th century, had already been reduced to a pile of rubble. “They stopped the work and raised the name of the demolition company. But they did not obtain the name of the sponsor, ”one explains to the mayor of Zuydcoote.
Three complaints filed for three different reasons
“It is land that belongs to the Maritime Hospital and we have never asked that the railway stop be cut down,” confirms the deputy director general of the establishment, Lorine Roblot. In marriage, it is also said that no demolition permit has been filed. “The site and the building are classified Natura 2000 and they were included in the Operation large site project of the urban community of Dunkirk (CUD) ”, affirms our interlocutor in town hall.
Suddenly, three complaints were filed the day after the tragedy: one by the town hall for the lack of a demolition permit, one by the Maritime Hospital as owner and a last by the CUD for the violation of a site. class. And in addition to these three instances, it is also the historic inhabitants of Zuydcoote who fell from the clouds. The older ones knew well the place to go there to smoke cigarettes or to smooch quietly. “Childhood memories that fly away”, deplores Catherine on the city’s Facebook page. “You destroyed our youth, our childhood, our anecdotes about this station,” adds Laurent.
So who, and especially why? If an investigation has been opened to try to find the sponsor, a simple phone call through 20 minutes at the SNCF makes it possible to see (a little) more clearly. “Indeed, it is the SNCF which has mandated a company to tear down this wall,” says a spokesperson for the carrier. Behind this site, no real estate project: “The wall was in poor condition and threatened a walking path that ran alongside it. It was a question of security, ”continues SNCF. For the rail carrier, there may be confusion over the ownership of the site. Not for the Maritime Hospital: “In the land register, this land is part of our domain just like the building which is there”, insists Lorine Roblot. The director of SNCF Immobilier is due to meet the mayor of Zuydcoote next week.