Over the weekend we introduced you to British-born Francesca Eyre, who has joined our current Mayor’s team ahead of the forthcoming municipal elections in March. We also promised to bring you balanced coverage of these elections because many important issues are at stake. Although Morzine Source Magazine fully supports all and any responsible development of our amazing village, we don’t support development that is ‘at all costs’. And it’s for this reason that we’re keen to explore the motivations and objectives of each candidate.
Opposing our current Mayor Gérard Berger’s Morzine Avoriaz Naturellement campaign is the group Morzine Ensemble et Autrement, headed up by Fabien Trombert. We asked the group for a statement of their intentions, objectives and key policies and they shared the following with us.
“Ensemble et Autrement” is an innovative long-term vision that respects the environment.
This is a very motivated team preparing for March 15th. It has a majority of young people, who have been involved for many months to propose a municipal alternative, a project to defend their vision of the future: a brake on intensive urbanization, a desire for actions focused on the energy transition in the face of climate issues, a policy developing sustainable and responsible tourism with an alternative to the link project between Morzine and Les Prodains.
Morzine was the prey of real estate speculators who distorted this mountain village. Despite more and more constructions, the population decreases (decrease of 2.39% for Morzine-Avoriaz between 2011 and 2017 while the neighbouring villages of the Aulps valley saw their demography explode up to 36%), classes close, and young Morziners are forced to find accommodation in the surrounding communities.
Another observation: at certain periods, several sectors of our ski areas and their accesses are saturated, and the quality of the reception of skiers is no longer guaranteed. It is time to review our priorities and prepare for the economic upheavals that will inevitably result from climate change.
11 women and 12 men who wish to propose to the inhabitants new projects to improve the life of the village and promote the tourist offer while respecting the natural resources of the region. The current municipal council’s plan for the Morzine-les Prodains route poses a very serious financial threat. The municipality alone will carry all of the loans for which the final amount has not yet been quantified. According to our estimates, it would take almost three generations to repay the debt. This situation would deprive the town of any other development and improvement project.
This project is not irreversible. It is still possible to stop it to consider a much cheaper alternative like access by Super Morzine. Why not improve, modernize and extend the existing gondola to allow and facilitate direct access to Avoriaz? This will be the flagship proposal of this new team, which has worked with professionals in the sector to soon present this option to residents.
Our ancestors were visionaries, it is up to us today to anticipate to respond to these new challenges by making the right choices and by associating the population of Morzine-Avoriaz with these major projects.
Our living environment must be protected, our water resources preserved, our tourist accommodation offers broad and diversified, our constructions given priority to families and young people, and our heritage valued.
It’s a real awareness that needs to be done, time is running out. Our children are pushing us to do it, we must act now to secure their future.”
You can contact the group with questions or comments on morzine.ensemble.et.autrement@gmail.com
