'Drain the swamp'... our own 'career politicians' are making costly decisions

What a fortunate opportunity this has given us taxpayers. Rather than put out waste to be collected at a cost, we can actually burn it in our back gardens. The pollution that Deputy De Lisle and his merry band of supporters suggest would be given off by a 'clean incinerator' will now be created island-wide where open burning cannot be pollution-free.

Those who do not have the space to build their own domestic incinerator will take the next free option and that will be fly-tipping. What an own goal.

Another matter on which I feel I must comment is the Salerie fiasco, which by its design has actually created an even bigger danger to all using the junction onto the Salerie pier.

It is totally beyond any common sense, traffic management or best practice to force traffic leaving a major thoroughfare to then have to 'give way' to those using the cycle race track.

It is quite obvious to me that such a hare-brained scheme – to which Deputy Barry Brehaut very loyally but misguidedly pledges his undying support for the decision made by his civil servant masters – is totally crazy.

The problem should be very clear in that if more than one vehicle or long vehicle wishes to exit the major thoroughfare when turning onto the Salerie and is then forced to stop for cyclists travelling along a minor track, the dangers of vehicle shunts or tailbacks will be the outcome.

Secondly, and what I consider to be the even bigger danger, is with vehicles travelling towards Town and turning left onto the Salerie. The angle at which any vehicle finds itself when carrying out this manoeuvre is such that the motorist is totally blind to whatever may be approaching along the cycle path from the nearside. Apart from any normal size motor vehicle where the A and B post may obstruct vision, any van or larger vehicle will have even greater problems. Therefore, it is on these grounds that this very costly scheme (praised by Deputy Brehaut) is very dangerous by design and layout, and will I am sure contravene any health and safety or codes of practice.

The situation and layout is now even worse than when vehicles were permitted to enter the smaller entrance where the unfortunate accident occurred some time ago. Invariably, this is a recipe for disaster.

I shudder to imagine which next major thoroughfare is to be subject to the Guernsey Traffic policy of 'priority change' or – just as dangerous – courtesy crossing.

Maybe Deputy Brehaut might like to share his ideas with the Guernsey Airport Authorities where priority could be possibly given to traffic, cyclists and pedestrians wishing to cross the runway.

I appreciate that such a suggestion is absurd, but regrettably no more so than that made by our career politicians and the designers of the Salerie scheme.

Unlike some who wish to seek the popularity vote, or live under a dictatorship where the actions of government go unchallenged, or worse still be subject to propaganda and fake news, I actually do support Donald Trump, not as an individual, but the policies he seeks to implement on behalf of the less fortunate. The hypocrisy and undemocratic desires of some is in my opinion disgraceful. They even believe that signing a campaign to discourage the president of the United States from visiting the UK as a guest of the Queen is the fashionable and trendy way to be. Not so, for I believe it is despicable behaviour and disrespectful to our sovereign.

Recently I watched on an American news channel as Senator Ted Cruz summed up perfectly all that was wrong with Washington politics – coincidently it did in my opinion cover UK and Guernsey politics, too. The point and comment he made was that politics is dominated by 'career politicians' who very often have no worldly experience of life or business.

Senator Cruz elaborated on this point, explaining that in the past most politicians were farmers or business people who had the interests of the country at heart. If I was running for deputy, my manifesto would include; 'Draining the Swamp' controlling immigration and closing the loopholes that disadvantage locally qualified people, and above all 'Make Guernsey great again'.

Sadly this is where Guernsey has gone: where the majority or our deputies are fence-sitters seeking the popularity vote, obeying their masters, all eagerly hoping that they can hang on to their jobs at our expense. The island was far more prosperous when governed by our local business people. At the time they did receive some unfair criticism, but if they were successful, then the island benefited, both with revenue and jobs. Not so these days with our career politicians who rubber-stamp millions of pounds out to international business and in addition embark down the road of borrowing.

Not a very good future, I feel.

BRIAN SARRE,

Address withheld.

Editor's footnote: Deputy Barry Brehaut, president of the Committee for the Environment & Infrastructure, responds: Thank you for affording the committee the opportunity to reply.

With regard to refuse, the recent resolution of the States of Deliberation introduces additional controls, under the Environmental Pollution (Guernsey) Law, 2004 to regulate air pollution. The decision in relation to domestic bonfires was that open burning would be restricted to dry garden waste (such as hedge cuttings) only.

With reference to the Salerie, the original recommendation for 'cycle priority' at this junction was proposed in a review of the eastern cycle path undertaken by Sustrans, a leading UK specialist in pedestrian and cycling infrastructure and safety, after consulting with a number of organisations. The final design, based largely on their recommendations, fully accords with accepted engineering design standards and is in operation at a number of locations across the UK.

The Netherlands and other more cycle-friendly nations have afforded cyclists priority at this type of junction for many years, but it is acknowledged that it has been a more recent concept in the UK and even more so here in Guernsey. This is exactly why the committee adopted a safety first approach and incorporated several additional features designed to slow both cyclists and motorists on approach to the junction.

The design was also subject to a Stage 2/3 Road Safety Audit carried out by Arup, a leading UK engineering and road safety consultant, which raised no concerns regarding the junction design or the priority status to be afforded to cyclists and pedestrians.

It makes sense to give pedestrians and cyclists priority at this type of junction because if drivers had priority, cyclists would have to check four directions of moving traffic simultaneously (and turn to look behind them) before assessing whether it were safe enough to cross. Knowing they had priority, drivers would be far less likely to approach the junction with caution. Also, without priority on the cycle path, cyclists would be more likely to ride on the main road so as to avoid the hazards and the inconvenience of having to give way.

With this new junction layout, which adheres to accepted engineering design standards and is tried and tested in many other jurisdictions, the risks have been minimised and the potential for conflict between different junction users reduced in so far as is reasonably practical.