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3.15 The Connétable of St. John of the Minister for Transport and Technical Services regarding the recent snow disruption:
On 18th January during the snow disruption, how many miles of States roads were gritted or salted and when was it decided to remove grit boxes from major junctions or hills across the Island?
Deputy K.C. Lewis (The Minister for Transport and Technical Services):
I can confirm that all priority roads, hills, A, B and C roads were salted during Friday, 18th January between the period of 0300 hours and 1800 hours which equates to approximately 143.44 miles. The grit boxes were removed prior to 2006 as they were constantly being broken into and the stocks of grit salt depleted or totally emptied by various other parties and therefore they became redundant. Since that time, T.T.S. has doubled the number of salt-spreading machines that it operates.
- The Connétable of St. John :
Will the Minister please give a list of what he considers are the priority roads within the Island? Deputy K.C. Lewis :
Yes, the priority roads would be as follows. West: commercial buildings and underpass, Victoria Avenue, Beaumont Hill, Airport Road, Airport Terminus, St. Aubin's Inner Roads, St. Peter 's Valley, Mont Les Vaux, the whole hill; and east: New St. John 's Road, Queens Road, Trinity Hill, St. Saviour 's Hill, Wellington Hill, Mont Millais, Mont Felard and Grouville Hill; Liberty bus routes, Liberty Station to St. Aubin's via Inner Road, Liberation Station, Gorey via Coast Road.
- The Connétable of St. Helier :
While not wanting to diminish the sterling efforts of his staff, could the Minister confirm that his staff was also assisted by other manual workers around the Island, particularly those of St. Helier , who were up very early to help clear the roads? [Approbation]
Deputy K.C. Lewis :
Yes, indeed. I was going to mention that when I was out walking around St. Helier , I did in fact see the St. Helier workforce doing sterling work salting roads, et cetera, so well done to them.
- The Connétable of St. John :
Given the amount of roads that the Minister mentioned, he mentioned hills like Queens Road and the like, but a big percentage of the population do live out in the country areas, probably one- third of the population, and we have centres like Sion, in our case, St. John 's Village, et cetera, and other villages in St. Ouen . Can the Minister say why these areas were not covered in his 140 plus miles that he quoted where we have clusters of maybe 500 or 700 people living in a very close area?
[11:15]
Deputy K.C. Lewis :
Yes, the whole Island was covered but these are the priority routes. Obviously all the equipment is stored at La Collette so everything branches out from St. Helier . Obviously the Harbour and Airport, Victoria Avenue and roads going east and west are the priorities, working our way north but I will take the Constable's comments on board. While I am on my feet, may I congratulate the T.T.S. workforce who were up from 3.00 a.m. salting the roads and did an absolutely sterling job and also Liberty Bus and indeed the bus drivers who were driving in very challenging conditions.
- The Connétable of St. John :
Given that the Minister in his reply eventually finished up in the north of the Island, will he try and reverse things around and let the outer Parishes have a little bit more of the tax money that is used when they are gritting to make sure that people who live in places like Bonne Nuit, et cetera, can at least get out of the traps that some of them find themselves in?
Deputy K.C. Lewis :
Yes, indeed. I am more than happy to look again at the rota.