The States unveiled plans for new major road through the Saltpans vinery as part of a proposed new housing area at the end of June.
The road would have three exit points on the site – a purpose-built junction on Route Militaire, which has remained unused for more than a decade, and exit through two roads joining the Saltpans to the south.
The States has also recently completed the purchase of nearby Leale’s Yard which has been allocated for over 300 new homes in the past.
Peter and Sue De Garis have lived in the area for 49 years and had gone door-to-door to collect signatures for a petition against the proposals.
‘I got 49 signatures. It would have been more if everyone had been in,’ said Mr De Garis.
‘We had people knocking on the door to sign when it was too late. Everyone wanted to sign because everyone agrees we can’t go on like this.’
He said there needed to be much more consultation with residents before anything was decided.
‘Not just here but across the whole of the north of the island,’ he said.
‘There is nothing in the plans that will alleviate the problems. If they don’t know how many houses they want to build in the Saltpans, how can they know how wide a road they need?
‘One of my main beefs is the way the planners seem to change the plans and not inform us. Where there is now an access road – which I’ve called a motorway, it’s so wide – to the Saltpans, where there was originally planned to be a footpath and a park.
‘We were also originally told there was not going to be any compulsory purchase, and now there is?’
He added he believed planning had based its plans on inaccurate information.
‘I was told the traffic survey information is based on one day’s data taken on a July day, out of school time, and in fine weather,’ he said.
‘If that’s what they are basing this on it’s rubbish – they should see what it’s like when it’s raining in October.’
Another resident, Claire Reader, said the amount of traffic on the narrow Saltpans road was already ridiculous.
‘When we moved here four years ago it was silent at night now it’s "boy racers" ripping past and no one gets any sleep,’ she said.
‘They have painted a white line down the Saltpans road but that does not magically make it wide enough for two-way traffic.’
She said politicians who said that active travel was the answer were being unrealistic.
‘Lindsay de Sausmarez has been to some of the schools to talk about this herself, but there are no footpaths and it’s very dangerous to walk,’ she said.
‘The one time I let the kids cycle they nearly got hit by a speeding car. There is no way we can let the kids walk to school even without all the extra new traffic that more housing will bring.’
Jan Hodgkinson lives near the junction of the Saltpans Road and Route Militaire and has her front wall knocked down twice.
‘I’ve been clipped on several occasions walking my dog,' she said.
‘We have taken so many kids in who have been knocked off their bikes at that crossing. Everyone here feels the same. The area can’t cope with more traffic and the housing developments need to be spread more fairly around.’
All the residents agreed that other parts of the island needed to share their part of the need for new homes.
‘The north is getting saturated and it’s not fair,’ said Mrs De Garis.
‘Our quality of life doesn’t seem as important as the residents of St Peter’s and Torteval. Castel complains about the Vazon development and that gets dropped, and St Peter’s gets one tiny development and everyone is up in arms that it’s too near the flightpath.
'Whatever we say won’t matter, it will just get bulldozed through.’
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