AN urgent parish assembly is being held next week to vote on changes to Trinity’s road network after disgruntled parishioners invoked an ancient legal device.
The requête – which allows Islanders to demand that a parish assembly takes place – has been brought by a group of 23 home and business owners who say they would be directly affected by the alterations.
They say they are concerned that the changes will cause long tailbacks and make it difficult for vehicles to exit from Le Grand Clos.
They are also concerned about additional noise and that the measures will cause frustrated motorists to use alternative roads, compromising safety along those routes.
The government previously said work to introduce “road improvements” in the parish would begin by the end of October, but it is unclear whether this will now be delayed until the parish assembly is held on Thursday 2 November, at 7.15pm.
Details of the project, which has been significantly amended after the original plans aroused what Infrastructure Minister Tom Binet described as “quite an extraordinary level of discontent”, have been published.
The minister said that the main focus of the work would be the installation of a raised-table pedestrian crossing on Rue ès Picots, just east of the Trinity Arms, and new speed limits.
Other features of the original scheme, notably a one-way system described by Deputy Andy Howell, who represents Trinity, St John and St Lawrence, as being “universally loathed”, have been scrapped.
The one-way system would have included making Rue au Sellier one-way northbound, Rue Presbytère one-way southbound and preventing westbound traffic from driving down Rue d’Asplet.
Parishioners were left incensed, prompting admissions in July from both Deputy Binet and Trinity Constable Philip Le Sueur that it would be necessary to pause and go back to the drawing board.
The speed limit changes include a number of 30mph roads being reduced to 20mph, and a number of 40mph roads being reduced to 30mph and 20mph.
The Islanders who have brought the requête are mainly residents of the first-time-buyer homes at Le Grand Clos and the retirement homes at Maison Gallichan, adjoining Rue ès Picots.
