Path paved with good intentions

THE ill feeling generated by Living Streets' plan for a safe walkway to Baubigny Schools is to be regretted.

Rarely in the island can something with such obviously good intentions have fostered such bitter resentment.

After all, this is not a new runway, slaughterhouse or incinerator being planned here, it's a footpath for children through a green lane.

That, as we reported yesterday, the dispute should sink to the level of personal abuse is something that both residents hostile to the walkway and its advocates must deplore.

Nevertheless, this newspaper's own investigations show that some of the safety concerns advanced by opponents are justified. Those children tempted to access the path via the Pitronnerie Road shortcut will have to negotiate a busy industrial estate full of reversing trucks, trailers and builders' vans.

It is not a safe environment.

But neither is the existing route. Route des Coutanchez is a busy, fast road, too narrow in places and prone to pavement surfing of the worst kind.

Nobody can claim that encouraging children to go that way is a victory for health and safety.

Living Streets' alternative is via Les Banques and Victoria Avenue, but children living far west of Wesley Chapel will struggle to resist the lure of the shortcut.

But it is once pupils have passed the Island Bowl and are on the track itself that the objections become less understandable.

It is muddy, yes, but that's up to children and parents to factor in.

It is also dark and out of the way. But so are many green lane shortcuts to other schools.

And if the aim is to eliminate all risk it is doubtful even door-to-door parent taxis do that.

The success or otherwise of the walk will not become clear for several months. Children may try it for a few weeks and give up, some parents may wait for positive feedback before allowing their children to go that way.

Regardless, even those who believe that it will fail should hope that it does not.