To respond to the dizzying rise in fuel prices, Le Lude (Sarthe) has decided to grant aid of 30 euros to households whose members work more than ten kilometers away. “We are a rural municipality of 4400 inhabitants. We have no public transport, apart from school bus service and a bus providing a daily service. Nearly 40% of our assets are employed outside. Their finances are suffering,” explains the mayor, Béatrice Latouche (DVD).
Help in the form of a voucher
The aid, valid for all fuels, will be paid by the Municipal Center for Social Action (CCAS) in the form of a voucher. To obtain it, candidates must provide proof of address, an employment contract or a pay slip, or even a K Bis extract or a professional card for the self-employed, as well as the documents for the vehicle used. They will only have to present the voucher at the checkout of the two stations of the municipality partners of this campaign (Intermarché and Total).
“We estimated the number of affected households at 200. This represents a budget of 6000 euros, reveals Béatrice Latouche. For a town like ours, it’s an effort. The measure is therefore limited in time – from February 15 to 28 – and to one voucher per household. But an extension is not excluded.
If the Lude is, for the moment, the only local authority in Sarthe to embark on this path, others in France have adopted similar systems, such as Castres (Tarn), since the 2008 crisis, or Neuville-sur- Margival (Aisne), in January.