Graham Greene-style row over megayacht parking space

When Anthony Terry, a British former diplomat arrived in the peaceful village of Napoule on the French Riviera eight years ago, he fell in love with its two delightful local beaches either side of a listed chateau.

Settling into semi-retirement in a house a stone’s throw from the beach, he hoped to take life easy and enjoy life by the sea.

Instead he finds himself in a struggle reminiscent of the battles in the Riviera by the writer Graham Greene against the rapacious mayor of Nice turning the area into a concrete nightmare. Greene’s furious letters to the local and international press against Jacques Medecin’s dubious real estate deals became a cause célèbre in the 1980s.

Mr Terry has cast himself as the heart of a fight with another mayor over plans to build a parking spot for multi-storey mega-yachts opposite the village’s only beaches.

La Napoule, five miles south down the coast from Cannes is a relatively unspoilt village with its own marina. Just down the coastline is a 14th chateau century restored early last century by a wealthy American sculptor.

In theory, French law bans any construction within 500 yards of a listed building that will detract from it aesthetically.

Henri Leroy, the mayor of Mandelieu who also has administrative control of the Napoule village, usually rigorously enforces that ban. But the former gendarme from President Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party has championed a €5 million (£4.2 million) project by the local yacht club to create a parking spot for four 148ft (45m) boats at least 49ft (15m) high within yards of the chateau and the beaches as a boost to local employment.

Appalled at the project, Mr Terry and a group of locals from the Amis de la Napoule Association argue that it breaks the 500 yards rule, will ruin the view and make bathing all but impossible, thus driving away locals and tourists alike.

“There will be virtually no turning circle for these yachts and add so much to the pollution of local beaches that they will have to close,” he said.

“La Napoule will lose its village charm and become another addition to the concrete development which has so changed places like Antibes, Juan Les Pins and St Tropez.” E

Elisabeth Valenti, a Napoule native, has set up a website and a petition with more than 2,600 signatures.

She said: “It will damage precious marine life including rare coral as they will have to drag 40 metres below the surface to build the jetty. Everyone knows that with big boats like that you get oil pellets on the beach.”

Eric Contencin, head of Napoule port denied this. He said that studies had shown that “the project will be done respecting the seabed and our coast (it) will have no environmental impact.”

Mr Terry, a Greene admirer, denied he was taking up the writer’s mantle but said there were parallels.

“I do think that here again we have a mayor supporting a project that locals feel is not in the interests of the local community,” he said.

“I’ve been in countries where corruption is very evident on the surface and it just makes one feel a little uncomfortable to be in a country so close to home where has the slightly nagging feeling that things are not as transparent as they should be.” A public inquiry into the new port extension will release its conclusions later this month.

Source: The Telegraph

Category: Marinas & Berths News