Secondary structure still up for debate

For it is clear that, if Education’s transformation proposals are to have any chance of success, people driving their children to schools are going to suffer.

Walk, cycle, bus or get on your moped. Just do not expect to turn up every morning in your own metal box at Victor Hugo (St Sampson’s) or de Saumarez (Beaucamps) and have an easy time of it.

That is not to condemn the plans and say they will not work. Convincing the motorist to abandon their vehicle is the plan.

If teachers, parents and older pupils continue to drive to and from the colleges then junctions will overload and the roads will be gridlocked.

The Arup Traffic Impact Assessment says the plan to avoid that is part carrot, part stick.

The carrot is to make life easier for pedestrians, bus users, cyclists and scooter riders. The stick is traffic exclusion zones, one-way roads and lower speed limits.

A helpful diagram puts motorists in their place. In the ‘access strategy’ hierarchy walking is top, then cycling, followed by buses, scooters and service vehicles. Rooted firmly at the bottom is the private car. There is no apology for this. Not only will the roads not cope with thousands of extra car journeys but the hope is that children who have ‘positive travel behaviours’ such as cycling or walking encouraged from a young age will take that into adulthood and the island will see lasting social, environmental and health benefits.

It is a lofty ambition. The danger is that it is rooted in hope and ideology rather than practicality and common sense.

The island may be resigned to the end of the 11-plus. We are perhaps already too far along in that journey to go into reverse. However, the number of secondary schools and which ones are to close is very much a live debate. The traffic plans for the two colleges do not provide the level of reassurance to the residents who live nearby or the parents and teachers who must get to school.

Education must convince islanders that their policy is workable for the whole community before these plans can go ahead.