MARIGOT--The Collectivité through its Local Security and Prevention Council (Conseil Local de Sécurité et de Prévention de la Délinquance (CLSPD) has set up watch units to monitor tension in neighbourhoods and to mobilise local personalities to find solutions and improvements while taking into account complaints from the population.
CLSPD held a meeting of its watchdog unit in mid-December in French Quarter in the presence of Territorial Councillor in charge of employment, training, apprenticeship and integration Martine Beldor, and St. Martin Senator Annick Pétrus.
Vice-Recteur Harry Christophe and representatives of the Police and Gendarmerie were also present, as well as representatives of District Council No. 1 and associations.
Among the topics on the agenda was the presentation of initiatives carried out by institutional and private actors in favour of social cohesion in the French Quarter area: the Territorial Plan for Security and Crime Prevention (Plan Territorial de Sécurité et de Prévention de la Délinquance PTSPD), City Policy (Politique de la Ville), community life, sports facilities and neighbourhood activities.
Inhabitants have previously expressed their grievances, mainly related to insecurity, the lack of public order and tranquillity, and the living environment. CLSPD is committed to monitoring the community’s developments for the benefit of the sector’s residents.
The opening of new local services (Gendarmerie, Post Office, moving of the Maison France Services) on the first floor of Les Hirondelles residence, by mid-January, is a significant step forward for the residents of the area.
The public institutions, the Collectivité and the State, will continue to provide financial support to the associations through annual subsidies and calls for projects, within the framework of the city policy.
The Collectivité is also committed to the complete rehabilitation of Thelbert Carti stadium, for which renovation work is underway with the next step being the construction of the locker rooms.
In terms of education, the Micro-folies mobile digital museum will be deployed at the Roches Gravées de Moho College, starting in January. A progress report will be made at the end of the first quarter of 2023 to assess the various projects undertaken by the Collectivité and followed up by the CLSPD in the French Quarter area.
As Annick Pétrus stated: “These meetings in the field are very important because they permit ideas to be exchanged, to make proposals and improve the existing situation. When we have completed the rehabilitation programme your neighbourhood won’t be recognisable anymore.”
Each of the speakers emphasised the importance of meeting the active forces on the ground to work together for the social and visual rehabilitation of each neighbourhood.
The CLSPD actions follow the operation held in December “The Collectivité in the heart of the districts”. Also initiated by the CLSPD it was designed to meet with inhabitants, especially residents and young people, in the neighbourhoods, to listen to them and discuss their expectations. After Colombier and Quartier d’Orléans, it was the turn of St. Louis, on Tuesday, December 20, to meet under the big tamarind tree. All the districts will be visited by the end of 2023.
The operation is the result of strong political will of President Louis Mussington and his team, who have promised the population more proximity and more social ties.
“No one should be left on the side of the road,” he said during his interventions.
The Collectivité wishes to convey a message of hope. Privileged contacts were established between the elected officials, the organisations present and the youth, to bring them the necessary help for a better future.
