Car is king with capital K – Deputy Inder

The kaleidoscopic discussion heard a number of meandering speeches covering numerous themes, including buses, SUVs, Boris bikes, bike shelters, electric skateboards, cats, the Coutanchez and paid parking.

It was revealed that there are 85,000 vehicles registered in the island, or 1.3 vehicles per person.

According to one analysis, this puts the island at the top of the world rankings for vehicles per person, ahead of San Marino and Monaco, who are in second and third place respectively.

The UK is well behind, with 0.47 vehicles per person.

Deputies were only being asked to ‘note’ the review of the transport strategy, but many wanted to speak about the vital component of island life.

Key parts of the strategy were defenestrated back in 2015, when paid parking and a more stringent first registration duty were thrown out.

Some of the more traditional deputies called for a ‘reasonable’ and ‘proportionate’ approach to traffic and not to go ‘overboard’, whereas other deputies wanted to inject a bit more vigour into it.

Deputy David De Lisle said Town needed more parking spaces in order to thrive.

‘As a commercial retail centre, any loss in market share, in terms of trade in Town, could seriously impact on the future viability of Town as a business and retail centre.

‘Economies grow as a result of the dynamism of their centres, and Guernsey is being overtaken by the growth of centres around it currently.’

Deputy Peter Roffey sounded underwhelmed by the review, although he added he was not pooh poohing what had been achieved.

‘It does half a job very well and the other half not at all.

‘This does a very good job of analysing the strategy so far, but we’re just asked to note it, there are absolutely no recommendations for how to make it more effective.’

Deputy Lester Queripel thought that bike shelters were a waste of time and money, and instead those resources should be put into providing more bus shelters.

He also flagged up the Coutanchez, where he said there was no protection for pedestrians and urged Environment & Infrastructure to go down there and look, and not wait for another survey.

Deputy Jennifer Merrett questioned the ‘car is king’ mantra and thought people should be given options.

‘People should have a choice about how they get around our island, the infrastructure after all is there for members of the community, and I want to choose please whether I walk, cycle, get a bus, or take my car.’

She also thanked E&I for the changes to speed limits and road layouts at Salerie and Richmond Corner, because she felt the committee had received a lot of flak for trying to improve road safety.

Finally, there was good news for cat lovers because Deputy Mark Dorey gave a strong commitment that E&I was going to change the law so that motorists who hit a cat on the roads will have to report it.