It takes “far too long” to implement new road traffic schemes, according to the Infrastructure Minister – who has said he is looking at ways to shorten the process.
Speaking to the Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel yesterday, Constable Andy Jehan explained that it could take years before initiatives were brought forward for trial.
This includes time spent consulting with various stakeholders, such as the community that would be affected by the changes.
Mr Jehan said: “My personal view is the length of time it takes for the process is far too long, because people forget about it – and people who were engaged may have moved off or may be away.
“The same goes for speed-limit reviews. I think the time it takes us to do a review and then to implement is far too long.
“So we’re looking at how do we shorten that process.”
Controversy surrounding the closure of Broad Street to general traffic was also acknowledged during the hearing.
Last year, it emerged that the Government was seeking to make further changes to Broad Street, which was initially pedestrianised in 2020 due to pandemic-related overcrowding concerns.
The first phase of a “wider public realm improvement project for the Grande Rue district” is due to be carried out this year.
This includes work to “improve the threshold area from Lloyds Bank to the Post Office”, including the creation of a “pedestrian priority area” by resurfacing the street.
During the hearing, panel member and St Helier South Deputy David Warr asked about the impact of pedestrianising Broad Street.
Associate Transport Director Tristen Dodd explained that the pandemic had initially driven the closure, but added: “What we found was – and this was really a trial by accident in some respects – actually, it worked and we could adapt the network.”
He continued: “It worked in terms of, we had relatively free-flowing traffic elsewhere, we were able to reallocate parking spaces to support people with disability, we were able to accommodate deliveries.”
Mr Dodd noted that there had been “some noise very early on from some of the larger retailers”, but that this had “disappeared relatively quickly and has not come back”.
A petition requesting that Infrastructure Minister Andy Jehan “re-open Broad Street to vehicular traffic” had received over 1,200 signatures at the time of writing.