STRATEGIC STUDY (Summary)

A strategic study, that took into account the entire estuary, was made available to the public in two volumes in 1999. Carried out by a group of three specialised consultants, the drawing up of the 360 pages was the subject of six presentations to the piloting committee composed of the same representatives as the Charter.
After analysing our region’s main economic features, the development of land transport and urban pressure, four development scenarios became apparent and an operational programme recommended.
In the chapter relating to the economic efficiency of the Port, le Banc Saint Bernard and its immediate surroundings, it mentions “the prospects of developing Ro-Ro traffic and different high space consumers”. This document mentions the Centre Européen de Frêt de Mouguerre « too far from the Port by a route that necessitates skirting round the north of Bayonne….It may be useful if this facility were to be complemented by a logistics platform on the Port site …In fact land is available for this kind of platform”. A study that acknowledged that transport and logistic activities generate jobs : the widely accepted ratio being between 20 and 40 jobs per hectare.
The planning development on the Saint Bernard zone was carried out as a direct result.

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PORT CHARTER (Summary)

The “Charter for the port centre of the Port of Bayonne” was published on 15th December 1997. More than 70 meetings between all the local actors (council members, administrators and port users) were required to draw up this 130-page document. Three clearly laid out objectives were established :
- enable the economic development of the Port and surrounding communities while maintaining the neighbouring urban and natural environment.
- Ensure the harmonious co-habitation between the different functions and give preference to the re-appropriation of the Port by its immediate inhabitants and inhabitants of the surrounding towns,
- Inquire into the division of the constraints and benefits between the actors.
This document examines the entire port and acknowledges that the main objective of the works to the Banc Saint Bernard was the “creation of a turning zone necessary for the safety of maritime traffic”.
This analysis of the situation and the prospects of development already underlined that “the RD 85 serving the Port by the industrial road was prejudicial and disturbing for the locals”. And naturally the document recommended in its four objectives, the “creation of a bypass to the North” as a link between the “port zone by a new route and the RN10 and A63 infrastructures”.
Such was the origin of the project known as the “Barreau Nord”.
The Port Charter bears the signatures of the Prefects of the two Departments concerned, representatives of the Regional Aquitaine Council, the General Council of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques and that of the Landes, the BAB local council and the communities of Seignanx, the Mayors of Anglet, Bayonne, Boucau, Mouguerre, Ondres, St. Martin de Seignanx and Tarnos as well as that of the President of the Chamber of Commerce of Bayonne.
All these signatories formed part of the Strategic Estuary Committee in 1999.