‘Douzaines are on board with Island Games road closures’

Various road closures have been planned to cater for road-based events in the games as well as the opening and closing ceremonies.

St Peter’s is one of the parishes most affected by the closures, with many road-based events being held in the west of the island.

To allow for the triathlon, cycling time trial and cycling road race to take place, routes in and passing through St Peter’s will closed for nearly 20 hours in total across the week.

Senior constable for the parish, Tim Langmead, said that at one point during the games his own house will be landlocked, but there will be access to and from properties in between races and in the case of emergencies.

‘Like the rally, it should only affect people for a few hours at a time,’ he said.

‘We haven’t had any negative comments to the douzaine about it, and we’ve just got to accept that it’s going to happen and it’s for the greater good.’

The St Peter’s floral group will be creating extra flower displays ahead of the games to show off the parish.

‘We want to make the most of the event, and have the parish looking it’s best,’ said Mr Langmead.

‘There are ideas in the pipeline to be finalised on how we can highlight the parish.’

Island Games volunteers are in the process of delivering leaflets and letters dictating the scheduled road closures to properties which will be affected.

Updates will be issued closer to the event, and advanced warning signs will be displayed on the affected roads in the run-up.

On the day, there will be fully trained marshals lining the routes to ensure a safe and secure event.

The opening ceremony will be held on the Town seafront which will be closed from 4pm to 9pm on Saturday 8 July, with some partial closures on the Friday and Sunday. St Peter Port senior constable Zoe Lihou said she encouraged the games overall.

‘It will be great to host the opening ceremony – St Peter Port is the heart of the island and it’s a wonderful opportunity to host the Island Games as a whole,’ she said.

‘There was always going to be disruption with more than 3,000 athletes, coaches and administrators coming to the island, but roads are closed all the time, so closing them for such a big event is a positive closure.

‘Ultimately there’s not much we can do about it, the roads are closed so athletes can be safe.’

She added that the parish would be ensuring its assets in the main run of town were looking their best for the event.