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A €150m new ferry terminal in Saint Malo has been given the green light – but heritage campaigners are pushing back against the decision.
The plans to modernise the harbour area to be able to accommodate new Brittany Ferries vessels while also responding to new post-Brexit controls were set in motion in 2019 by the region of Brittany. The ambition is to be able to welcome 750,000 per year, compared to 600,000 today.
Formal proposals were made public in 2023, and a planning inquiry followed.
Those plans involved replacing the terminal with a new 7,000 m2 two-storey building much closer to the road featuring a restaurant and commercial space.
A 117m-long footbridge connecting the terminal with ferries, and new harbour dolphins driven into the seabed to improve access for ferries, were also proposed, as well as bringing an infrequently used berth alongside the ramp familiar to islanders back into action.
After some criticism was leveraged at the project by campaigners, it was proposed in February that the building could be lowered to 8m instead of 10m, and that the footbridge could be removed from the first phase of the project.
But this wasn’t enough to allay the fears of APPSAM - Association for the Protection of the Tangible and Intangible Heritage of Saint Malo - a group of campaigners who have banded together to protect Saint Malo’s heritage.
Pictured: The current ferry terminal.
Despite the group’s concerns and calls for another rethink, the project was deemed “essential for the future of the port of Saint Malo” by the Mayor, Gilles Lurton, who signed off on the construction permit on Tuesday 13 August.
In response, APPSAM’s President, Patrick Margon, told Ouest-France that the campaign group would be filing an appeal before the administrative court against the permit for the new maritime station, which he said "has no reason to exist".
The group maintain that they are “not opposed to the modernisation of the port or the renovation of the ferry terminal”, but rather the “visual damage” that may result from it.
They fear that a taller port will “obstruct a view [of the ramparts] that has existed for nearly 300 years”.
Instead, they called for the height of the most offensive element to be taken down to four metres.
Pictured (top): An artist impression of the new terminal from above. Credit: AREP/myluckypixel.
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