Is this the end of the road for Living Streets? Guernsey
A PEDESTRIAN safety charity could be closing down after more than two decades if it is unable to replace three key and long-serving volunteers.
Living Streets Guernsey said that there had been little interest from people stepping forward to join its committee.
Pat Wisher, Tom Le Pelley and Judith Le Tissier are all in their eighties and intend to step down at the charity’s AGM next Wednesday.
‘It’s sad that we can’t get people to join,’ said Mrs Le Tissier, who has spent 20 years on the committee.
Mrs Wisher founded the charity in May 2002. Both she and Mr Le Pelley were on the States Traffic Committee at the time, and they were tasked to carry out safety audits around all of the schools.
‘I thought to myself this is going to end in 2004, and I really wanted to carry on the work, so that’s why I decided we needed a pedestrian safety charity to carry on what we’d been doing with safety around schools to improve pedestrian infrastructure,’ she said.
‘There are a lot of dangerous pavements, just about wide enough for one person to walk, there isn’t enough space for a mother to walk with a child beside them.’
As well as continuing to campaign for pedestrian rights and promoting safety issues, the group established an off-road pathway to service Baubigny Schools, which it continues to maintain and has an annual cost of £5,395, for rent and a litter bin. It covers this cost through fundraising and sales of cards and calendars of Guernsey country walks. Mrs Wisher said it would be ‘a tragedy’ if the pathway was to close.
Mrs Wisher said she did not think Guernsey was a safe place for pedestrians, and Mr Le Pelley said that it needed to be safer.
‘This is why we have been trying to encourage other groups, such as Better Journeys, to take over from where we’ve left off,’ he said.
‘No junction is too far away and its possible to triangulate routes to make one-way systems with wide provision for pavement, such as Brock Road and Rosaire Avenue.’
Mrs Wisher will be leaving the island in the near future, and after suffering a recent heart attack, Mr Le Pelley can no longer operate the machinery required to maintain the paths.
The charity has approached the States about paying for the annual cost of the pathway, and the St Sampson’s Douzaine to handle the maintenance, but with no success.
‘Children who live within one mile of their school should be safe enough to walk to their school,’ said Mr Le Pelley.
‘It is as quick to walk through the lanes as it is to wait for a bus, sit in traffic and arrive.
‘We hope that the States will want to take that idea over and adopt this walkway all the way through to the school.’
They are ideally looking for someone retired who would be willing to dedicate their time and interest in the safety of pedestrians.
Applicants will also need to take on a fundraising role.
