Campaigners taking legal action over 'stupid' plans for St Malo ferry terminal building

A French campaigner says he is not willing to accept the "destruction of the identity of St Malo" as his heritage group prepares to take legal action against Brittany's regional council over concerns about the visual impact of a new ferry terminal building in the town. Patrick Margron, the president of APPSAM (The Association for the Protection of the Tangible and Intangible Heritage of St Malo), told ITV News that he believes the current approved plans for a new Naye ferry terminal building threatens St Malo's heritage and will diminish its appeal for visitors from the Channel Islands. Mr Margron said: "If we accept the new building today, it's to accept that, for the coming years, for the coming generations, we will accept any destruction of the identity of St Malo. And the identity of St Malo is one of the main parts of the town's attractiveness."People from Jersey or Guernsey come to St Malo for several reasons but one reason is the value of St Malo's heritage. "To destroy this heritage for a stupid reason, just for the sake of a building, without reason is really not acceptable and not reasonable."

In August, local authorities in Brittany approved plans for a major £128 upgrade of the current ferry terminal to modernise the site and provide extra space for passengers arriving from the Channel Islands and the UK. Work is due to begin in 2025 on the redevelopment.Mr Margron stated that he was not against plans to improve St Malo's port but objects on an aesthetic level and wants to see the plans revisited to stop the historic area of Intra-Muros being negatively impacted. He told ITV News that the area's heritage had been preserved for the last 200 years. He said: "This heritage has already been restored after the terrible destruction of the Second World War. And this project of building will destroy that [work] without any reason. "There is no reason to build a building with two floors, eight metres high, in front of the ramparts of St Malo."There are a lot of other solutions, a lot of other designs for a new ferry terminal."The two-storey building would be constructed around 500m from Intra-Muros under the approved plans. Mr Margron says he is "optimistic" that his legal challenge, at the Tribunal administratif de Rennes, could trigger regional authorities to change their plans.Brittany's regional authority says it has already taken the majority of concerns, including those of APPSAM, into account, in approving the redevelopment proposals and adds that APPSAM is currently the only group an aspect of the upgrade.

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