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2018.01.30
4 Deputy M. Tadier of the Minister for Infrastructure regarding the request for a
zebra crossing at La Moye School: [OQ.17/2018]
I thought you might give me some indulgence. Has the Road Safety Review Panel considered the request for a zebra crossing at La Moye School; if so, does the panel support such an amenity and, if that is the case, when will it be put in place and funding allocated?
Deputy E.J. Noel of St. Lawrence (The Minister for Infrastructure):
I am not sure if Deputy Tadier already knows that the Road Safety Review Panel received a request for a zebra crossing at La Moye School on 8th December 2017. This request was reviewed and indeed supported by the panel earlier this month. I am advised that the response communicating the panel's support was sent by email the week after to the requester. As with all supported requests, the proposal is now on a list of schemes for prioritisation for a future year and hopefully will be considered by my successor for implementation in 2019.
- Deputy M. Tadier :
Given the success of the economy and how strong we are doing and all this money that we have coming into the pot, why is it a future year that it is being proposed to bring in a zebra crossing if the panel has already met and agreed that there is merit in having a zebra crossing right outside a school? Why do we need to wait until 2019? Can it not be brought forward or do I need to bring a Back-Bencher's proposition in this regard to expedite it?
Deputy E.J. Noel:
I am grateful for the Deputy 's supplementary question and it is one that I wanted him to ask because I can explain that in every autumn the department carry out a prioritisation of all the potential schemes that have had support by the Road Safety Panel to prioritise them for the actioning in the subsequent year, so all of the activities that are going to happen in 2018 have already been agreed and the funding put in place.
[10:30]
As a retiring Minister and politician, I cannot bind my successor to potential schemes for 2019 because this particular zebra crossing, which does have the support of the Road Safety Panel and myself, needs to be considered with all the other requests that we will have for actioning in 2019. So it is a part of a process; what we do not want to do is to change that process ad hoc because that means that we end up not delivering as much as we can deliver and that is what my department is about, it is delivering services and improvements for Islanders.
- Deputy M. Tadier :
I do not understand why it was necessary for a constituent to flag it up with the panel in order for them to realise that this is an appropriate place for a zebra crossing. It seems to me that firstly the panel should be proactive and they should be going out and identifying places throughout the Island, which could benefit from crossings. Also, my concern, and perhaps the Minister can answer to this, we are now in January 2017, the Minister talks about future years, he did not specify next year, even if a zebra crossing is built next year it could be in December 2018 and that is some 23 months that we might have to wait for a road safety issue outside a very increasingly busy school in a busy part of the Island. Is this really acceptable?
Deputy E.J. Noel:
My department does take a proactive view and the Deputy should know that we are producing a crossing and improvements to the road junction a few hundred yards away from the school at the entrance to the road, and that is one of the projects that was identified in the autumn and is being delivered this year. The reason why this particular crossing has not come to light sooner is because there is already at school times an individual that acts to allow the children to cross the road at the beginning and the end of the school day. What has come to light is that a crossing is needed for outside those normal school hours for activities that happen at the school during the holidays and indeed outside the normal school time. What I would suggest to the Deputy is that, if he is keen to learn, has an interest in road safety, that he attends our road safety seminar that is taking place next week on 6th February. To date he has not responded to the invitation, and indeed many States Members have, and I am grateful to those who can attend and, those that have not yet responded or cannot attend, I hope that they revisit that and come to what is a very, very important seminar on road safety that is open to Parish officials as well and therefore they will have a better understanding of how my department prioritises road safety issues and how we fund them and the processes that need to take place to make sure that we have a continual improvement of road safety on our Island.