By Fiona Walker
So here we go again. Infrastructure Minister Andy Jehan has dismissed a petition signed by over 1,500 Islanders calling for Broad Street to be reopened to traffic.
Clearly, the minister, who is also the Constable of St John, is more knowledgeable than the rest of us, so doesn’t need to take into consideration the opinions and concerns of a sizeable chunk of the population. If he has the clout and the confidence to override planning decisions, why on earth should he be bothered by the concerns of his electorate?
Oh, hang on, “his electorate”? Well, sadly, this is currently just made up of St John’s parishioners, and with a spanking new road surface through his own parish, they may feel more enamoured than those of us residing in the rest of Jersey. Perhaps, with the Islandwide mandate being reintroduced, the Constable should put his self-confidence to the test and stand for a Senatorial seat… now that could elicit an interesting result.
The idea of Broad Street being – to quote the minister – a “pedestrian-priority area” is laughable. Has he actually walked down the street recently? The pedestrians are mainly waiting for buses or using the Post Office, which is easily accessible via the pedestrian crossing. And it’s not as if St Helier encourages the use of al fresco areas; look at the problems and financial complications the Butterfly Café encountered simply because they wanted to put a number of tables and chairs on what is already a pedestrianised area.
He then goes on to quote the strategic objectives to create a more accessible and vibrant town centre. As far as accessibility goes, how on earth does this help? And as for vibrancy, it would take a complete change of attitude from our town planners in order for that to happen. Let’s start off by cutting red tape and see whether that has a positive effect, because a bit of pedestrianisation and gentrification certainly won’t work in isolation.
And then there’s the cost. If we want to support vibrancy, economic vitality and help to sustain tourism and commerce – and according to the minister that’s exactly what this project aims to do – perhaps we should invest in our road infrastructure. Spending £2.5m would go a fair way towards resurfacing and general improvements, which would make us look less like a developing country and more like a tourism destination. And then maybe we could afford tarmac that is thick enough to not deteriorate within 12 months.
Introducing e-petitions was supposed to enable the public to have a say in shaping political discussion. Any petition attracting over 1,000 signatures has to be considered by the relevant minister, with those signed by more than 5,000 people required to be potentially – but not definitely – debated by the States; even that depends on a States Member bringing the topic to the Chamber, which seems to rather negate the purpose of introducing such petitions in the first place.
I fully appreciate that there are times when our government needs to introduce unpopular measures, which will often prompt a backlash from the public. Many petitions will fail for the simple reason that such measures are a necessity and, whether they are welcome or not, their introduction is for the greater good of the Island. But when it comes to what is little more than a vanity project – and despite the minister’s protestations to the contrary, it is hard to see this as anything more than that – then the voting public surely has a right to influence whether or not our taxes are available for such use.
There is one other alternative: let’s turn this whole objection on its head and ban all traffic from Broad Street, then open cafés, restaurants and boutique stores throughout the area, plant trees along the pavements and introduce colourful tubs of flowers. Let’s have tables and chairs filling the street, hang baskets and bunting to decorate the buildings; let’s encourage shopkeepers to use the open space to display their wares. We could even put a canopy overhead, making it a welcoming place of beauty in any weather, to be enjoyed by locals and tourists alike. It’s done regularly and successfully in France and Spain, and even in some of the smaller streets in London.
But it won’t happen in Jersey, because there would be too many restrictions and not enough businesses confident that the States could convert this vision into a reality.
Instead, the road is likely to be closed but not extinguished and few floral embellishments may appear. But without a sweeping transformation, this road “enhancement” proposal is likely to become yet another ineffective and expensive white elephant.
Fiona Walker was born and educated in Jersey and worked in finance before having children. She moved into media, presenting her own programme on BBC Radio Jersey, then as a senior broadcast journalist for local BBC television news. She was editor of The Jersey Life and wrote eight series for the national publication Motor Boat & Yachting magazine. She now promotes Jersey charity shops on social media under the name Upstylejersey.
