In Loos-en-Gohelle, « the town hall is enriched with the vision and expertise of the inhabitants »-Liberation

Faced with the distrust of citizens vis-à-vis the State, institutions or politics, what role can local communities play? Such was the object of a conference organized in Rouen by the national center of the territorial public service. An event that Release is a partner.

This year, the « big » of the Emile-Basly school, in Loos-en-Gohelle (Pas-de-Calais), will undoubtedly see the summer arriving in their courtyard with a particular joy … They will know very well, indeed, where the new shadow and freshness come from which will finally protect them from the heat: from their own initiative, their efforts and those of their parents, to drain and vegetate their recreation space.

The project, launched in March 2022, was what is called a « Fifty/Fifty » here: a citizen involvement device imported from Germany in the early 2000s by the former mayor Jean-François Caron (EE-LV), based on the principle of « giving-and ». “The inhabitants come with an idea, which they motivate and explain to the city. If the project is credible and of general interest, the town hall undertakes to support them, technically and financially, to make it themselves ”, described Pascale Eslan, municipal councilor. So you have to roll up your sleeves … « The Fifty/Fifty is based on the idea of ​​empowerment, continues the elected Loossoise. The citizen is no longer simply “customer” of public action but cobâtiseur. ”

To formalize the deal, commune and citizens sign an agreement that frames the project, tasks and responsibilities. Thus, to transform the courtyard of the Basly school, the town hall has made available thermal chainsaw, punch, electric grinder, shovels, picks and wheelbarrows … And it is the parents of students who, volunteer and during the school holidays, have dragged and evacuated coating, before a landscaping phase, also participative. As for the plans, they were drawn by the students.

In addition to improving the living environment and making save money to the municipality, the desired effect is obviously very political: reconnecting, while a severe democratic crisis rages in France, bonds of trust between citizens and elected officials. « This principle pushes everyone to hear and understand the issues of the othertestifies Valentina Hernández, Ademe project manager at the town hall of Loos-en-Gohelle. Elected officials and technical services are enriched with the vision and expertise of the inhabitants, and the latter discover the cogs of the city factory. ” Investigation, debates, search for consensus … citizens are coming up new skills. To draw the plans of the new skate park, the young people of the city went to study what was done elsewhere, consulted the neighbors, and exchanged with the technical services.

Sometimes, of course, the enthusiasm down, like certain vegetable gardens, launched by residents but gradually deserted … « We must maintain the flame, accept discontinuities », concedes Pascale Eslan. Manage, too, « Frictions »add Valentina Hernández: « Residents can be frustrated by budgetary constraints or by municipal time, punctuated by public procurement and steering committees. »

Waste collection on the terrils, festivals, creation of vegetable gardens, renovation of associative premises and rural roads … In twenty years, sixty of these microprojects were carried out in Loos-en-Gohelle, making this small town in the mining basin (6,900 inhabitants) a reference to the national scale: “Participatory democracy is on the rise in France, but most of the devices – participatory budgets, citizen conventions and panels, online consultations, etc. – have one thing in common: it is systematically the community that masters the casting, the subject and the result ”, Note Manon Loisel, consultant in local public action and co -author, with Nicolas Rio, of To put an end to participatory democracy (Textual, 2024). A pitfall that the fifty/fifty seems to thwart, without resolving, according to her, two limits: rallying those who are heard the least (abstentionists), and covering only a limited perimeter of public action, « Whose essentials are played on another level, that of intermunicipalism ».

« There are people that we will never see participating, it’s true »recognizes the municipal councilor Pascale Eslan, who underlines the importance of persevere. “Developing the culture of participation is a substantive work, which begins on this very local scale. In Loos-en-Gohelle, we may have widen this furrow for more than forty years, we must continue to convince. ” In 2025, the city will notably publish a comic book, produced by a graphic facilitator, to further visit its Fifty /Fifty.