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Wednesday, August 27, 2008 |
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Luisa Copeland Ph. +33 553 62 44 79 E-mail Us!
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Go Back Dordogne Characters - The Mayor .
Dordogne Characters - The Mayor . My next profile is the key figure in the commune - the mayor or Monsieur le Maire. Elected every 6 years he is usually re-elected for several terms and in the smaller communes is regarded as a kind of father figure by the locals. Our own Mayor is a working farmer, and seems to be related to many of the local families. He professes to be a good Communist and claims to be descended from Jacqou le Croquant, one of the legendary figures of the French Revolution. Communist though his sympathies may be, he nevertheless runs the village on remarkably capitalist lines, buying up and developing spare parcels of land and creating a small commercial zone which has brought much wealth to the area. The extent of his power was demonstrated not long ago, when he pre-empted the sale of a property to an English couple who were hoping to set up a Bed and Breakfast business on the outskirts of the village. Unfortunately for them it was situated in a Zone which he and his councillors had earmarked for possible housing development. Not until someone makes an offer can he step in and buy at the price already agreed. He is allowed 60 days during which he can decide whether or not to exercise this right of pre-emption and as a rule this happens very rarely indeed. Every request for planning permission for pools, extensions, changes to the façade of a house, change of use etc must be submitted in the first instance to the Mayor, who then passes it on with his blessing (or not) to the planning department for further consideration. The mayor’s office also handles the enrolment lists for the local school, decides on the school budget, the spending on local parks, sports amenities, road spending, rubbish collection, local fetes, markets and so on. In fact if you want any information about almost anything you can think of, including how to go about getting your residence permit, importing your car etc., you simply have to go to the local Mairie and ask. If you have already introduced yourself it makes it easier when you really need the Mayor’s approval for something… |
