They are between 440 and 470 members, but it is difficult to have exact figures. They were largely less than two hundred in the general assembly. The tense atmosphere would be involved. It must be said that the town hall has put the association to collect wild deposits and warned in the face of a substantial increase in the subscription (+54%).
This morning of Saturday, January 25, it was necessary to be part of the powerful and essential brotherhood of the High Garden of Creil to attend the General Assembly.
There are good gardeners and bad gardeners. In short, those who can enter, and others not. A democracy of another time, in short, at the entrance to the meeting room made available by the town hall of Creil for the family gardens section.
The media were kindly blocked at the gateway to the annual general meeting. To participate in the meeting, it was therefore necessary to show white leg, a bit like in a secret brotherhood.
At the door, security officers block their way. “I have been ordered to let people hold on their up -to -date membership card come in,” said the security guard who says “to do what is asked”.
Jean-Claude Villemain, first assistant to Creil does not have his gardener card, but he was able to return without problem. A little logical, the family gardens could not exist in Creil without the city provides land (figure not communicated, but at the price of the square meter, this can be calculated in thousands of euros per year), without the City cannot provide rooms to hold the General Assembly (more than 4,200 euros for the Hall of Faïencerie on this morning on 25/01), without the city providing a house serving as a registered office (rent estimated at 600 euros monthly or 7,000 euros per year). In the end, these are a few tens of thousands of euros invested by the city, therefore the taxpayer, therefore by everyone.
A public place for “initiates”
The Assembly is held in a public place where freedom of access was the rule. Well not. Such decided President Bernard Frémont and his team rather brought up against the media. Why then? Well, quite simply because the media had the fact that they have evoke sensitive subjects such as that of wild waste of waste and completely prohibited equipment such as the installation of non -compliant toilets or sheds. “You have to be a gardener, initiated, to assist,” said a man of a certain age presenting himself at the entrance as a member of the office, in the face of the insistence of the media to enter.
Worse, and this would be a crime of lese majesty, the media, of which mainly Oise Hebdo, would not comply with the requirements of the section president by coming to address the king of gardeners flatly to collect the point of the big boss of the place.
There is a phone, but the messages are filtered. Whatever, President Frémont’s word is the only worth.
Well, this simple observation made, let us look a little at the general assembly proper, since ultimately, this is what was most interesting. This morning of January 25, there were largely less than 200 members present. The workforce announced between 440 and 470 memberships.
“This lack of participation in the annual general meeting presents a problem,” noted the departmental president Michel Leblond and according to what is reported from the interior of the Assembly.
It is because lately, there has been conflict in family gardens. The latest is an increase decided unilaterally in office and without any consultation. And it is not negligible this increase since the annual subscription is now rising to € 65 or 54 % increase. And VLAN! Family gardens, however, have a social role. Increasing the contribution as much, it goes pretty badly in homes. It goes so badly that a petition was launched. The subject is talking. Especially since all accounts gathered, the association has nearly € 100,000 in reserve. Imposing an increase of 54 % contribution to households which have a lot of trouble reaching both ends, it goes very very badly.
Perhaps the protesters are among some 250 to 270 members who have not moved to the General Assembly? In any case, the point was raised “out of the presence of our cameras” as the big television channels would say.
“General costs, trips, maintenance, and now legal costs”, this is the cause of the increase in the subscription. Allegedly explained President Frémont to assistance that finds it difficult to express themselves.
The president would have had plenty of time to explain his point of view, but as the media were kindly confined to the door, it was not possible to collect his words.
“You cannot decide such an increase without approaching the subject in general assembly,” said Jean-Claude Villemain, visibly a bit annoyed by the content of this assembly.
And then there is the questions of the plots. Many were not maintained and not rented last year plots. The town hall had already raised the problem and a recruitment campaign was set up to remedy this year.
A few minutes earlier, having knowledge of various files and in particular an attempted to expulsion from a tenant of his plot, he had to intervene personally to allow the entry of this member to this same assembly.
She is in conflict with the gardens and carries the case in court. At the same time, its annual subscription has been refused. Should we be dubbed by omnipotence to have the honor of pouring your obole?
“President Frémont did not want to have it in the paws during the assembly,” said, under the cover of anonymity, a relative of the director’s office. The member remained wisely to listen to without evoking his case where it is a question of pressure, ultimatum, even insults, all carefully recorded, with witnesses in support. In short, elements attached to the procedure which there was no question that morning.
The atmosphere was tense, even palpable from the outside.
Wild deposits, tension subjects
Wild deposits remain a major subject. Jean-Claude Villemain when he was mayor, simply put the association to have wild deposits cleaned. It made the headlines. Deposits adjoining the plots both on the heights of Creil and that located on the edge of the Oise after the earthenware.
“It is not the gardeners who throw, it is external people who come to be Benner their junk near the gardens,” said the office loud and clear.
All this waste does not come from gardeners, it is undoubtedly true, but some come from the gardeners themselves, images in support, “alleges one of the tenants of plots who would see a list for next year .
An opponent of the team in place in the coming years? Well, it makes the team currently majority nervous.
In any case, the crisis situation is taken seriously by the city since not later on Wednesday, January 29, the members of the office are simply summoned to the town hall of Creil to meet the new mayor, Sophie Dhoury-Lehner. Jean-Claude Villemain said he will be present. Suffice to say that the tone is likely to rise in the city offices.
But would we promise it … would the carrots be cooked?
