A wider solution

The traffic problem so hated by Deputy Burford is actually a symptom of over-population, but the States seem hell-bent on following that destructive path.

I object in the strongest possible terms to Yvonne Burford & Co's fanatical social engineering that considers that I must pay a penalty when I eventually have to replace my VW Golf for a similar car.

I, as many others, keep a car not only for use here but also for trips to the UK and France. I have no wish to be forced to drive any vehicle smaller than I have now on the motorways and auto routes. For safety and practicalities, that is not an option. Many families need cars that they can all fit in at once for obvious reasons, with the shopping too.

This new tax is, as ever in Guernsey, obscenely unjust. It will not apply to commercial vehicles, or Yvonne Burford's beloved buses. Nor will it apply to the many four-door, 4WD pick-up trucks used by many as personal transport. The wealthy man will pay a far smaller proportion of the buying price of his Bentley or Range Rover Sport than I will have to pay to replace my Golf. Scandalous.

As so many of the vehicles on the roads will be width-exempt, the bullying of the remainder into Noddy cars will have negligible beneficial effect. The emissions side of this tax is a damaging attack on islanders and our economy and is pointless unless the largest nations on Earth follow our lead. They will not.

Yvonne Burford has demonstrated how out of touch she is with us here on planet Earth by saying that the tax can be avoided by buying used vehicles. Over there, in cloud cuckoo land, she has failed to consider that as the stock of vehicles presently in Guernsey continues to age, they will all eventually come to the end of their lives. Newer used vehicles by then will all have paid the tax and so second-hand prices will be higher.

As the tax element is uninsurable, any car that is written off leaves the owner out of pocket as the insurer will only pay out on the basic cost of the vehicle. The owner will then have to pay the tax again on the replacement vehicle. A used vehicle brought from elsewhere could well incur a width tax greater than the value of the car.

The States would be far better to concentrate their efforts on improving the roads themselves. There are many examples of where our roads could be widened by no more than two or three feet so that two vehicles can always pass safely. Correct radiusing of corners, better geometry of bends, improved sight lines at junctions, removing bottlenecks and building pavements wherever possible are just some of the measures that could be taken in some places.

Douzaines seem to have lost interest in enforcing the existing law that hedges must be cut in declivity – there are hundreds of roadside hedges that effectively narrow the road and force pedestrians to walk further out into the road and reduce the available width of road for traffic.

The Croix du Bois road leading up to the Vale School has a stone-and-earth bank on its south side that is 20ft- thick. Rebuilding the bank a few feet further back would allow comfortable two-way traffic with a proper pavement throughout its length. Similarly, the road leading to the Capelles School is bordered by only fields on its northern edge. The stone and earth bank could be rebuilt, again allowing safe two-way traffic and a pavement that vehicles would not need to mount. Where there is a demonstrable and clear benefit to public safety and traffic flow, owners of agricultural land should be forced to cede or sell a negligible slither of land to improve the road network. These measures would have no detrimental effect on the utility of the adjacent fields.

Similarly, all applications for development should include an assessment of the adjacent public roads. Where there is an obvious advantage in improving the road by a small slither of land being ceded to the road, then this should be a condition of permission to develop. An example of this is the 51-unit development at the Braye Road/Tertre Lane. The Tertre land side of this huge site would not suffer if a tiny strip of land was ceded to enable two-way traffic with a pavement when so much more traffic will be inevitable once the development is complete. Hundreds of opportunities have already been missed to improve our roads and it is too late once development has taken place.

Some years ago, Ronez ceded a strip of their land to widen the coast road to the north of the Vardes quarry entrance. This road is now a safe, usable road that no one would say was better as it was previously, and does not look out of place for Guernsey. This is an example of what can be done with a little imaginative thinking.

I urge you to vote against the width/emissions tax, and instead take interest in improving the construction and safety of the road network.

L. V. DOREY,

The Wheelhouse,

Grande Rue,

Vale,

GY3 5HP.