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Partnerships
The Communauté de Communes de la Vallée de la Haute Sarthe has a number of partnerships:
Contract for Recovery and Ecological Transition (CTRE)
After signing an Ecological Transition Contract in 2019, the VHS CC has continued along this path by signing a Contract for Recovery and Ecological Transition in 2021, based on 5 major guidelines:
- Tourism and mobility
- Circular economy
- Energy and housing
- Agriculture and short circuits
- Ecological transformation of water and wastewater services
Small Towns of Tomorrow (STD)
In 2021, the municipality of Le Mêle sur Sarthe was awarded the Petite Ville de Demain (Small Town of Tomorrow) label by the French government, in partnership with the Communauté de Communes de la Vallée de la Haute Sarthe. In the Orne department, 20 communes have been awarded the PVD label.
Working groups were set up to develop a regional project, which is presented in the framework agreement signed in July 2023 between the municipality of Le Mêle sur Sarthe, the Communauté de Communes de la Vallée de la Haute Sarthe, the Prefect of the Orne and the Orne Departmental Council, as well as the partners in the Le Mêle urban area, i.e. the municipalities of Coulonges sur Sarthe, Saint Julien sur Sarthe and Saint Léger sur Sarthe, and the Normandie Maine Regional Nature Park.
The municipality of Le Mêle sur Sarthe and the CC VHS received support from the Banque des territoires, which paid for a consultancy firm to assist with the emergence of the PVD regional project.
CEREMA
Cerema carried out an initial study of the area, which led to the development of a ‘mobility in sparsely populated areas’ strategy with a set of action sheets to be implemented in the short, medium and long term.
Cerema is currently carrying out an Energy Mix study, which is compiling a whole range of data on energy consumption and production in France. This will help to identify possible courses of action in this area.
Normandy Public Land Establishment (EPFN)
The EPFN supported the VHS CC through two ‘flash’ studies which were fully funded:
- Pre-operational study for the redevelopment of the Coulonges sur Sarthe industrial estate
- Urban, technical and economic pre-feasibility of a proposal to develop the site of a former dairy at Le Mêle sur Sarthe
The EPFN is also a partner of the CC VHS and the commune of Le Mêle sur Sarthe as part of the Territorial Agreement.
