Town to get a ‘makeover’ for pedestrians

Transport and Technical Services and the parish are also due to begin work soon on three new pedestrian crossings in St Helier which will be completed in the next few months.

The moves follow a public consultation led by the Transport Minister, Environment Minister, Housing Minister and the Constable of St Helier.

It asked Islanders for their opinions on the regeneration of town.

  • A park-and-ride system
  • Shared public and private parking so spaces are not left empty during the day or night
  • Green corridors which provide scenic connecting walkways through town
  • More parking in the north of St Helier
  • Town-centre cycle routes

The new crossings will be installed at the junctions of Seaton Place and Sand Street, Bath Street and West’s Centre and Dumaresq Street and York Street.

St Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft said that the changes were ‘critical to the success of St Helier’.

TTS will also assess the potential for giving greater pedestrian priority in and around Broad Street and Conway Street, following an extensive traffic management review for the whole of St Helier, the results of which are due in the new year.

Kevin Pilley, policy, projects and historic environment director for the Environment Department, said that this would include a number of trials to improve town for pedestrians.

‘TTS are just doing some work to see what changes may be possible,’ he said.

‘They will look at things like widening pavements and other traffic management changes, such as looking at what other routes vehicles can use.’

The way we were: Traffic in King Street in the sunshine of July 1946

Mr Pilley added that pedestrianisation was the wrong way to describe the goals they were trying to achieve in St Helier, as the aim is not to close roads completely but see if there are ways to improve routes for all users.

Mr Crowcroft said: ‘Reclaiming streets and giving greater priority for pedestrians in the heart of the town, while retaining essential access for buses, taxis, delivery vehicles and disabled drivers, is gaining more support and is critical to the success of St Helier.’

Transport Minister Eddie Noel said that Islanders would see changes over the next few months which will ‘deliver a real improvement for St Helier’.

‘We have a real opportunity to make changes happen by working together and pooling our resources,’ he added.

‘We have reviewed what we can do and prioritised the changes that we can implement straight away.’

Some of the changes to St Helier that Islanders said they would like to see during the consultation in May included more sustainable transport, better facilities for pedestrians and park-and-ride schemes.

In December 2010 the States approved the policy, which called for a 15 per cent reduction in peak traffic by 2015.

It was hoped that through encouraging bus use, walking and cycling Islanders would learn to leave their cars at home and find greener ways to travel around the Island.

However, a review of the strategy carried out in 2013 – three years after it launched – revealed that peak traffic had dropped by just 1.7 per cent.

In the same report use of public transport was found to be up by nine per cent, the use of road fuel was ten per cent down on its 1994 peak and roadside air quality had improved.

Now, the States Future St Helier plan could help reduce traffic in town if measures to reduce cars in the Island’s capital are introduced.

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