Do not reinstate 10-hour parking at La Vallette

La Vallette has been transformed over the years by dedicated community groups from a relatively unloved backwater, blighted by bumper to bumper car parking, into a stunning public realm.

One cannot underestimate the vision and achievement of the likes of Pat Johnson and volunteers to re-model the green spaces, and more recently the stunning achievement of ‘Vive La Vallette’ led by Dave Warr, Helen Bonner-Morgan and team, to create something of which we can all be rightfully proud.

The positive impact that these committed individuals have had has transformed this space into an area which has been totally reinvigorated. The local population has responded hugely to the highly positive developments and it is now a hub of activity, where little existed before. Everybody can advantage greatly from the year-round benefits of sea swimming and walking and socialising in an invigorating, peaceful and stimulating environment.

It would be a huge mistake to reinstate 10-hour parking, which brings no benefit to anyone other than the user, and is a non-benefit to everyone else. Turning this beautiful and carefully recreated realm into a parking lot would be a tragedy, without a clear broadening of the benefits.

It is clear that people do need access to La Vallette and some parking should be provided, particularly around the Ladies Pool area, including disabled spaces. In order to maximise the social and economic and environmental benefit, I would suggest that the areas around the pools are limited to a maximum of two hours to allow more people to access the facilities and to ensure a higher turnover rate. I would also suggest that parking is restricted primarily to small vehicles (as defined by current legislation), so as to allow more-efficient allocation of spaces.

Furthermore, I believe that it would be a useful exercise to experiment with paid parking. Clearly long-term parking does have a value to certain users, so why not use this as an opportunity to trial this idea and get some answers? At least it could be defended as generating some economic benefit to non-users, including the States. Additionally, one might gain some useful insight into how much demand for long-term parking there is, which might usefully be applied elsewhere in Guernsey. Having ‘free’ parking is ideologically and economically illiterate. For instance, I cannot imagine Guernsey harbours permitting boat owners to moor their boats for free, and nor should they. It is a huge source of revenue and keeps the harbours financially afloat.

If there is excess demand for parking, we should find out by how much. Pricing this service is the only way to find out. I suggest the States trials the idea.

La Vallette has already been transformed by societal pressure and executed by motivated individuals. I would suggest that it is the responsibility of the States to follow their example and create more imaginative and effective solutions to what are frequently seen as intractable problems, hijacked by out of date idealogical dogma.

Vive La Vallette.

RUPERT DOREY