Traffic lights in La Charroterie for 19 months (Guernsey Press, 13 August). St Martin’s roads face 13-week closure (Guernsey Press, 7 August), specifically the Fort Road-Fermain Lane-Les Hubits junction.
Join the dots. This is not just two more cases of the States Highways Department approving contractors making life difficult for islanders. There would be nothing new there. It is the long-term closures in tandem of two major commuter routes into Town that makes it really significant. It matters not that traffic will still be able to negotiate La Charroterie. It will be one-way and therefore a much slower route.
The two measures together will create a logjam that will mean hundreds – thousands? – of workers – taxpayers – will have to leave home earlier in the morning and get home later in the evening, probably significantly, for a lengthy period. It will also knock on to those who use the busy Grange coming from and going to the direction of Rohais since presumably that road will have a very large increase in the number of people using it morning and evening.
There it is not just commuters to consider but also parents taking their kids to and from Elizabeth College. And how about the extra fuel burned and exhausts polluting the atmosphere while held up drivers drum their steering wheels in frustration?
You wonder whether the civil servants responsible took this situation into account when approving the closures. I am sure we would be told nothing can be done to change things anyway. After all it’s contractors, Sure, Guernsey Electricity and Guernsey Water whose wishes seemingly hold sway.
It was in this context that I was interested to read of a road closure policy being pursued by Oxfordshire County Council on the mainland. They charge contractors up to £2,500 a day for closures which impact peak travel times. A neat idea. An incentive for contractors to get on with the job and finish asap rather than letting things drag on. Useful source of revenue, too. Department store owners on South Esplanade please note, by the way.
Stuart Garner
St Martin’s
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