Guernsey Press

‘The traffic is incessant and the noise is awful’

RESIDENTS of a road near Cobo have called for traffic calming measures to be introduced to prevent a serious accident after a number of recent near misses.

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Picture by Sophie Rabey. 07-09-20. Residents of Rue du Bouverie are upset that their street has now been turned into race track and always full of traffic due to the road closures around Cobo and new diversions..L-R Craig Horey, Lucy Vaudin, Peter Vaudin, Sue Sykes, Ricky Guilmoto and Sue Edmonds.. (28663373)

People with walking frames and those with pushchairs and young children have said they are too frightened to venture out because the volume of traffic is so high.

Work on the Cobo sea wall has meant that the coast road is one-way northbound, and southbound traffic has been diverted along the Rue de Bouverie.

Residents there thought it was an early April Fools’ Day joke when Traffic & Highways decided to close part of the adjacent Route de Carteret and divert traffic from there along their road as well.

However, it was no joke, and residents said they had been hit with a double whammy of mismanagement.

Picture by Sophie Rabey. 07-09-20. Residents of Rue du Bouverie are upset that their street has now been turned into race track and always full of traffic due to the road closures around Cobo and new diversions.. (28663371)

They have asked for help, and made suggestions, such as a one-way system, better signage, a sleeping policeman, or real police officers with speed guns to deter the law-breakers.

So far they have been disappointed with the response, because the only concession they said had been the installation of a smiley face speed indicator.

Resident Sue Edmonds said their quiet lane had been turned into a nightmare and it was an accident waiting to happen.

Picture by Sophie Rabey. 07-09-20. Residents of Rue du Bouverie are upset that their street has now been turned into race track and always full of traffic due to the road closures around Cobo and new diversions..L-R Sue Sykes, Ricky Guilmoto, Lucy Vaudin, Peter Vaudin, Sue Edmonds and Craig Horey.. (28663375)

‘The traffic is incessant and the noise is awful.

‘You can’t cross the road, you can’t get in your gateway, traffic drives continually on the pavement.

‘It’s so dangerous for anyone to walk along the pavement.

‘It seems that everything is being sent in our direction, and I appreciate that maybe motorists would speed more if it was made one-way southwards here, and one-way northwards on the coast road, but surely that’s down to the police to be policing the speed limit along here.’

Picture by Sophie Rabey. 07-09-20. Residents of Rue du Bouverie are upset that their street has now been turned into race track and always full of traffic due to the road closures around Cobo and new diversions.. (28663369)

At 3pm on Monday the complaints of the residents were evident, with long queues of traffic, buses overtaking each another, pavement surfers, teenagers revving their motorcycles, and cyclists mounting the pavement.

Another resident, Sue Sykes, said they felt let down by a lack of concern from the authorities.

‘I just feel that if they caught a few people along here and made an example of them with big fines, then maybe people would slow down, because we’re worried about an accident.

‘If you want to walk along to the shops trying to cross the road at the end is almost impossible because cars can’t see you crossing and they come whizzing round.

Picture by Sophie Rabey. 07-09-20. Residents of Rue du Bouverie are upset that their street has now been turned into race track and always full of traffic due to the road closures around Cobo and new diversions..L-R Craig Horey, Lucy Vaudin, Peter Vaudin, Sue Sykes, Ricky Guilmoto and Sue Edmonds.. (28663373)

'We just hope the end really is in sight because we’ve put up with this for months now.

‘Fair enough traffic officers did put the smiley face up and we thought that would calm the traffic, but I think sometimes it encourages people to see how fast they can go.’

In a statement, Traffic & Highway Services said that observation periods had been performed by officers and these raised no concerns from either a traffic management or road safety perspective.

Vehicle speeds were found to be appropriate, and it was considered that making the road one-way could be counter-productive because speeds can increase when drivers do not need to worry about oncoming traffic.

Guernsey Police said that officers from the roads policing unit had been specifically deployed to Rue de Bouverie to speak to the residents.