After several years of experience on the municipal council and college, Philippe Boury has once again taken up the mayoral sash in Theux.
At the head of a municipality rich in heritage, community life and villages, he now puts his experience to work for residents. For the Près de chez vous feature, he looks back on his priorities for the municipality and his vision of local engagement.
You've been involved in politics for over forty years. What still motivates you today to work for the people of Theux?
When you have the Theux spirit and the will to get involved in your town, few people ever lose that burning desire to take part in local life, to immerse themselves in this immensely rich community life and to remain constantly engaged with the friendliness and solidarity that characterise life in Theux. I am Theutois to my core, and I always will be.
You became a municipal councillor at a very young age, then alderman and mayor. Looking back, how do you see the role of a mayor evolving today?
The role of a mayor is to stay in touch with every part of the population and to try to be a constant link between all these groups. Moreover, it's becoming increasingly important to know as much legislation as possible, to master it as well as possible and to surround oneself well. The mayor must steer municipal matters and decide, together with the college and the municipal council, on municipal priorities, then task the administration with implementing them. It's important that elected officials, who carry more and more responsibility, remain the real decision-makers.
Theux has just over 12,000 residents and is made up of several villages. What are the main challenges for a municipality like yours today? What are your priorities for this term?
The absolute priority is preserving the Theux spirit of friendliness and the wellbeing of residents. We must never forget that all the money we manage belongs to our fellow citizens. Keeping our operating costs under control allows us to maintain very reasonable, if not low, taxation, which in turn allows us to roll out a series of ambitious projects that enrich the quality of our villages and our community life, through youth, the elderly, the villages, sport and culture.
In 2021, the municipality of Theux was severely hit by flooding. Where do things stand with the rehabilitation of public spaces, and how do you plan to tackle flooding in the long term?
What is extraordinary to see five years after the floods is the extraordinary capacity for solidarity, response and organisation shown by residents. Almost all private properties have been rebuilt with care and quality, and the rehabilitation of public spaces is now nearing completion. Measures agreed with regional authorities have been decided to redesign the spaces in the centre of Theux, to minimise as much as possible the impact of future, foreseeable floods (let's not fool ourselves: floods like those of 2021 would cause exactly the same damage regardless of the measures taken). Finally, emergency plans are being prepared that, for the first time, take into account the consequences of surface water runoff.
If we visit Theux soon, do you have any recommendations for us?
I can only recommend all the accommodation, restaurants, tourist attractions and festivities held across our territory. Coming to Theux and taking part in its life is a sense of wellbeing you'll soon embrace.