Following the launch of Project St Peter Port by the parish’s douzaine – an initiative seeking to push for a more prolonged sense of pride in the parish’s appearance – the Guernsey Press visited a number of areas in town and asked local people what they would like to see emerge from the plans.
Rubi Croft, who walks through town as part of her commute to work at Skipton International, said she thought the area needed a ‘bit of a clean-up’.
‘I think more bins are needed,’ she said.
‘There used to be some outside the Arcade but they’ve gone and there just seem to be fewer than there used to be.’
‘I do notice cigarette butts and chewing gum on the ground, and the drains are a bit of a mess.’
She added some buildings could do with a lick of paint.
Sam White, who also works in town at Lloyds Bank, also picked up on the issue of a lack of bins.
‘I see a lot of rubbish around, food waste bags, cigarette butts, and there aren’t too many bins, so that could be why,’ he said.
He added he was supportive of the idea of more colour and vibrancy in town – an area of improvement suggested by St Peter Port junior constable Ken Acott – and said he would welcome the addition of more flowers.
Several islanders spoken to wished to remain anonymous, but all had views they were keen to share about the cleanliness, or lack thereof, around town.
One woman said weeds, chewing gum and cigarette butts – most notably around the bus terminus – made certain spaces look dirty.
‘I don’t come to town often but it seemed cleaner in the past, it doesn’t look like it gets cleaned up as much now.’
Another woman wondered whether the building works that required scaffolding could be scheduled so as not to coincide with other works of a similar nature.
‘I understand that it might be difficult but there just seems to be so much scaffolding up at the moment, town looks a bit like a building site,’ she said.
‘I just wonder whether there’s a way to avoid having scaffolding up for so long.’
A member of St Peter’s Floral Group, she also welcomed the idea of more flowers around town in order to restore a bit of pride to the area.
‘Anything to make it look cleaner and more vibrant would be good.’
A third woman called for there to be more seating installed.
‘They took the seating by the old post office on the seafront away and replaced it with seats that are difficult to sit on, you just slide off,’ she said. ‘I think there’s always room for more, the current benches are too far apart.’
She added more places to dispose of cigarette butts were needed.
‘I don’t think dirtiness is a major problem, but it could be a bit cleaner.’
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