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A budget too miserly for the task
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From Peter Bewers.
YOU will recall that I have been a frequent correspondent on the very serious condition of Jersey’s roads for some time and I am glad to see that the issue is now coming to prominence. (JEP, 23 March).
There should be no problem if the States managed our money affairs properly as with the current levels of fuel duty of approximately 50/60% of purchase prices at the pumps yields in my estimation at least £60,000,000 and possibly a good deal more.
When you recall that Motor Tax Duty was a mere £15 per vehicle before fuel duty for road maintenance was brought in some years ago (plus GST currently as well) a States income was less than £3,000,000 and the Island roads were in first class condition kept by Ronez Quarries on a rolling programme of resurfacing.
We have now got to the position where many of the Island roads have not been resurfaced since that time (about 30 years ago) and they are completely beyond patching and require resurfacing.
The truth of the matter is that the Finance department and States Treasury have taken all this revenue and used it for general expenditure and short changed the Island’s motorists to such an extent that it would today cost many millions of pounds to bring the Island’s roads into good repair.
The question is, what can be done to put matters right? Well, firstly there should be a legal obligation on the States of Jersey to keep the roads in good condition and be responsible for third party claims, as is the case in the UK. Secondly the States should be made to put aside sufficient revenue from vehicle fuel duty to give the responsible department, currently the Transport and Technical Services Department, the means to carry out their responsibilities properly.
Jersey has, I understand, less than 500 miles of roads to maintain and currently the department has funds to resurface three to five miles of road per year. How on earth can any responsible department fulfil their responsibilities on such a miserly budget?
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