Le temps et la concertation, facteurs importants de l'aménagement du territoire : une démonstration, les Landes de Gascogne

Time and collaboration : important factors in town and country planning. An example, les Landes de Gascogne - It is about fifteen years since the Compagnie des Landes de Gascogne began to develop and improve arable land. This experiment encountered great difficulties. Some thirty of those who had been allocated plots of land had protested over the poor results obtained during the first few yea rs and had taken legal action. The court found in favour of the plaintiffs, following the conclusions of the experts who had been appointed. They accused the C.A.L.G. of having undertaken a risky experiment and of having sold land unsuitable for farming. Now that some years have gone by it would seem that this harsh judgment against the company should be reconsidered. In the reclaiming of virgin land time is an impor tant factor. It is only after a certain length of time that one can draw objective conclusions. It is difficult to require local authorities to know in advance exactly what will happen when dealing with something as tricky as the implantation of farms on recently improved land. The human element is also important and the technical knowledge of those allocated plots, their financial possiblities — often necessary to supplement public investments — , and the element of luck — in the form of weather conditions — have a considerable influença on the success or the failure of the undertaking. As time goes by the experiment attempted by the C.A. L.G. finally seems to have achieved some success.