‘Close Cobo coast road to traffic in the summer’

Guernsey Bicycle Group chairman Sam Field said he was sure everyone had been enjoying the much quieter roads of late and has come up with a car-free Cobo concept for making the area in front of the Rockmount and Cobo Bay Hotel a little bit quieter a few days a week.

His concept looks at closing the road during the summer in the evenings Wednesday to Friday and on Saturday and Sunday from lunchtime until the evening to enable punters of the pub and hotel, once lockdown is over and they are able to open, to enjoy themselves without the road noise and vehicles passing by.

‘It’s not until you take away all the vehicle and traffic noise that you realise just how much noise it makes – it’s constant, never ending, and almost impossible to escape noise in Guernsey,’ he said.

‘Chatting with friends and fellow patrons of the establishments, we all [thought] it would be great to be able to sit and dine without the constant noise of vehicles going by and the exhaust fumes being emitted mere metres from our meals.

‘All too frequently when sitting outside it is necessary to almost shout at one another across the tables to be heard over the road noise – it’s not complementary to the social experience and stunning views over the beach, rocks and sunsets down at Cobo.’

This is a sentiment echoed worldwide, such as in Italy’s city of Milan, which has introduced an ambitious scheme to reallocate street space from cars to cycling and walking, in response to the coronavirus crisis, and announced last week that 22 miles of streets will be transformed over the summer for this purpose.

Plus in the UK last week, Brighton opened part of the seafront, Madeira Drive, to pedestrians and cyclists only from 8am-8pm.

Mr Field agreed that lockdown had revealed the potential of quieter roads in Guernsey and once the coronavirus pandemic was over the idea to keep them quiet could encourage other al fresco dining areas elsewhere in the island too.

‘Personally I’d love to see cafes on Mill Street have the ability to build little seating areas out the front of their shops,’ he said.

But for now he said he was concentrating on Cobo and said the idea had a lot of advantages, including allowing children to play on the front safely, even being able to colour the road in.

In addition, other opportunities could arise from it such as putting more picnic benches out to expand the al fresco dining options and all it would take is a sign displaying no entry at the northern side of Cobo Bay Hotel and the southern side of The Rockmount, similar

to how it is done on balcony gig days.

‘I have been pleasantly surprised at how well received and supported the idea is and equally at how widely shared the idea has been,’ Mr Field added.

‘I think any idea that enhances our social experiences and

enables us to enjoy the delights of our island is well received

and if people like the idea they should contact their douzaine, deputies and Traffic and Highway Services.

‘The more requests are made for an idea like this the more traction it gains, people power can make it happen.’