La Sentue beach, in Pregny-Chambésy, is one of the few bathing areas on Lake Geneva that is supposedly open to the public. I say ‘supposedly’ because for years the local council has had a system in place that prevents anyone who does not live there from entering. Residents only.
The problem is that this is illegal. In 2024, the Grand Council of the canton of Geneva passed a law guaranteeing universal access to the canton’s public beaches, with no distinction between residents and non-residents. A clear law. A law that Pregny-Chambésy has systematically ignored for the second year running.
This week, the Cantonal Department of Land Use had to step in and has referred the matter to the Municipal Affairs Service “to determine the appropriate consequences”. The local council, for its part, argues that it is a small beach in a fragile environment with insufficient parking. Arguments which, curiously, do not seem to bother anyone when it comes to their own neighbours.
What is striking is not just the fact that it is illegal. It is the nonchalance with which the local council accepts it. “We are unfazed,” say the local authorities. And people from outside the area, who pay exactly the same county council tax, are still unable to set foot on that beach.