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A €150m new ferry terminal in Saint Malo has been given the green light – but heritage campaigners are pushing back.
Thousands of islanders will be familiar with the small Naye terminal in the French port, where passengers disembark and board ferries to and from Jersey.
Over more than three decades, people have grown used to its uncomfortable wire-mesh chairs, saloon-bar-style doors to the toilets, and limited choice of refreshments.
But the process to update those surroundings is now due to begin next year after the mayor of Saint Malo signed a construction permit last week.
Pictured: Intra-Muros, the ancient walled town, forms the heart of St Malo in Ille-et-Vilaine in Brittany, which is served by frequent sailings from Guernsey and Jersey.
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 Naye terminal a new 7,000 m2 two-storey building much closer to the road featuring a restaurant and commercial space.
Pictured: The current Saint Malo terminal.
A 117m-long footbridge connecting the terminal with ferries, and new harbour dolphins driven into the sea bed 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: An artist's impression of the new terminal, car park and open-sided footbridge between the building and ramps. (AREP/myluckypixel)
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.
In particular, 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.
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.
Pictured: The 7,000 m2 new terminal will be on two floors, with one side running parallel to the lock. (AREP/myluckypixel)
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".
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