Clarke Avenue, St. Helier: Traffic Calming

CLARKE AVENUE, ST. HELIER: TRAFFIC CALMING _______________

Lodged au Greffe on 11th May 1999 by Deputy T.J. Le Main of St. Helier

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STATES OF JERSEY

STATES GREFFE

175             1 9 9 9    P . 6 1          

Price code: B

PROPOSITION

THE STATES are asked to decide whether they are of opinion -

to charge the Public Services Committee -

  (a ) to provide traffic calming measures for the public road known as Clarke Avenue, St. Helier from the junction

with La Grande Route de Mont à l'Abbé to the exit on Queen's Road, including the placing of road humps in Clarke Avenue, and;

  (b ) to extend, in conjunction and with the co-operation of the roads committee of the parish of St. Helier, the

speed limit of 15 mph to include Clarke Avenue up to the exit on Queen's Road.

DEPUTY T.J. LE MAIN OF ST. HELIER

Report

In 1989 the Island Development Committee issued a Design Brief for development of Field 1243A, at Mont à l'Abbé. The brief identified the site for housing but also made it clear that a new road should be provided between La Grande Route de St. Jean and La Grande Route de Mont à l'Abbé, which -

" w ill    p rovide an opportunity for future expansion to the west should this ever prove desirable. As the road may

eventually become a through road, it should have minimal frontage access."

As La Grande Route de Mont à l'Abbé is a parish by-road, the roads committee was asked to consider the future traffic management in the area. Several options were considered, resulting in the parish opting to pedestrianise the lower section of La Grande Route de Mont à l'Abbé and to adopt the new road (Clarke Avenue) as a by-road, provided it was constructed to the appropriate standard. In the event, when the road was opened to traffic, in 1994, the Constable was in dispute with the States over responsibility for street lighting and the parish refused to adopt the new road. Although Clarke Avenue does not meet the normal criteria for adoption as a main road, a previous Public Services Committee agreed to take over responsibility for the road from the Housing Committee. By design, and in accordance with the brief, there are two distinct housing estates, one on either side of the new road. The houses mainly front onto their own estate roads which branch off Clarke Avenue. Clarke Avenue is not, therefore, "an estate road" but a main access road built to replace the lower end of La Grande Route de Mont à l'Abbé. If Clarke Avenue was intended to be merely an estate road, it should have remained the responsibility of the Housing Committee.

As members will be aware, a new school, Haute Vallée, has been built to replace d'Hautrée on the fields behind the new housing. The opportunity for future expansion to the west, as mentioned in the original design brief, has proved to be desirable. Throughout the planning process for the school in 1993/1994, the Public Services Department's engineers provided advice on the traffic effects to States Committees, local politicians and residents. Senator (then Deputy ) Walker and Deputy Huet were both involved in the consultation process with the Mont à l'Abbé Residents Group. The last public meeting took place in November 1994, and received a fair amount of publicity. In all discussions, Clarke Avenue was recognised as the main access road to the area.

Turning to the residents' concerns, on several occasions the Public Services Department have carried out monitoring of the speed of vehicles using Clarke Avenue, and in early 1997, prior to the new school being built, an average of 150 vehicles per hour used this thoroughfare exiting on to Queen's Road; and the conclusions were that 15 per cent of these vehicles exceed 25 mph. La Grande Route de Mont à l'Abbé is a 15 mph green lane stopping outside the school. Then, incredibly (after all the complaints from residents, including two petitions of 70 residents), the speed limit becomes 40 mph for a short period up to Queen's Road. The volume of traffic was expected to increase considerably when the new school opened, and this has been the case, and contrary to what was imagined - that it could be in manageable proportions - the residents see the increases in volume and speed as grave cause for concern for the lives of their children and the elderly.

I have visited the area with the concerned residents, and can only concur visually that, whatever speed monitoring will say, it is quite clear that the speeds of many drivers exceed good practice in such a built-up area where there are so many children. I find it quite unsatisfactory that Public Services should say that parents and their children must act responsibly in relation to allowing their children to play or otherwise out of doors. They say Clarke Avenue is a main road but not a play street, and should be off-limits to anyone other than those who are aware of and capable of practising proper roadcraft. They say even with traffic calming it would be wrong to allow young children near a road that has a vehicle every 15 seconds or so in 1999; but all of us who have had young children will know the difficulty in keeping an eye on them every minute of the day, especially in a housing estate with young children split with a main thoroughfare where motorists can do up to 40 mph. I have two options which I would like the States to consider, and the first one is to consider that La Grande Route du Mont à l'Abbé would continue as a green lane with a maximum speed of 15  mph to link up with Clarke Avenue to the exit at Queen's Road; and secondly that speed humps be installed as well as a lower speed limit. The arguments have always been that the front line emergency services object, but due to residents' pressures, Le Squez Estate has speed humps, and it is a main bus route: this is very successful and causes no problems to the front line services, etc.

If one goes to European countries like France, one sees that their main priority is to protect little children in villages, towns, etc., because they place speed bumps.

It is time to stop meeting the needs of the motorist, and it is time we met the needs of the safety of the pedestrian, and, in particular, children and the elderly.