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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENT BY DEPUTY R.G. LE HÉRISSIER OF ST. SAVIOUR
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 23rd MARCH 2010
Question
"Is the Minister satisfied with the state of the roads in the picnic areas of Les Mielles and, if not, what remedies, if any, are proposed?"
Answer
I am concerned about the state of the roads and picnic areas of Les Mielles however with the budgetary constraints I have to prioritise where resources can best be applied. The heavy rain that we have had had in recent months has caused a great deal of damage but they are scheduled to be attended to, as they are each year, in April.
The soft surfaced car parks and access tracks at Les Mielles, as well as a number of other locations around the Island are maintained by the Planning & Environment Department to the limit of the budget available.
The annual access budget held by the Planning & Environment Department is £54, 500. This sum covers the maintenance of over 70 kilometres of footpath, 10 kilometres of bridle path and 2 kilometres of cycle track. The annual cutting of vegetation of these paths (which is carried out four times per annum) costs £47,000.
This leaves £7,500 per annum for all repairs and one off maintenance tasks, including the replacement of unsafe steps (there are over 3,000 steps to monitor), fences, bridges and the resurfacing of the car parks and access tracks.
At present, the Planning & Environment Department is responsible for the maintenance of 12 car parks and their access tracks, plus 7 car parks and tracks under joint administration with T&TS.
Annual maintenance work on the Les Mielles car parks and access tracks (including resurfacing) costs an average of £1,500. Work on all Planning & Environment Department car parks and access tracks costs £6,000. This normally leaves very limited resources for maintaining pedestrian access routes to Jersey's countryside including the north coast footpath system. In the past a fine balance has been struck in prioritising between resolving the Health and Safety issues on footpaths and the resurfacing of car parks and access tracks.