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WQ.146/2019
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE BY THE CONNÉTABLE OF ST. HELIER
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 12th MARCH 2019
Question
Would the Minister indicate when his Department will carry out traffic safety and road improvement works in Midvale Road and St. John 's Road?
Answer Midvale Road
The Department for Infrastructure wrote to the Connétable of St Helier on the 23 January 2018 to request how he might wish to proceed, given.
"Following a structured prioritisation of the road safety improvement requests for 2018, the DfI have been able to provide the scheme with a provisional budget of £120,000 to work within.
You will note that while the proposed scheme addresses the immediate road safety concerns for pedestrians, calms traffic and improves cycle access in and out of town, however it does not necessarily fulfil all the criteria of the vision for Future St Helier':
" St. Helier is a liveable town, with a range of good quality residential accommodation and pleasant and stimulating public streets and spaces for people to pass through and visit, with inclusive places for community activities and for people to meet".
It is recognised that proposed bollard solution may be perceived as a compromise in quality and not be considered a visual improvement on the existing streetscape. However, Future St Helier is currently unfunded and a scheme extending the existing footpaths (with associated drainage and utility works) would cost circa £560,000 and cannot be reasonably afforded within DfI's budgets.
The options remain of either waiting until further funding becomes available for Future St Helier, through the proposed Jersey Infrastructure Levy, or to consider this scheme as an interim measure. However, it is not clear when, if ever, full funding would become available to extend the existing footpaths.
Alternatively, given Proposition P81/2017 has been agreed by the States of Jersey, the scheme could be supplemented through the Parish of St Helier's allocation. A further development of this approach would be for the Minister to transfer the road to the Parish as a by-road, along with the available £120,000 funding, allowing the Parish to take forward the scheme its self.
I would be grateful if you could advise me of the Parish's views and how you would like to proceed"
As no response was received from the Parish of St Helier to this letter, the Minister for Infrastructure then wrote to again 1 May 2018 to the Connétable to reiterate the options as to how the scheme might be progressed and ask his opinion, as follows:
"Further to our various meetings and correspondence on this matter, we write to update you upon the funding position for this work.
As you are aware, DfI have undertaken a considerable amount of work to understand how this scheme could be delivered, developing options that range from a full footpath widening scheme (with associated drainage and utility works) costing £540,000 to a simple bollard solution costing £120,000.
While we continue to support Future St Helier', as demonstrated by our work funding and constructing the Conway St and Charring Cross public realm schemes, along with a number of other crossing and junction improvements in St Helier. Without significant dedicated funding for Future Helier' the full Midvale Rd scheme is not affordable from within DfI's necessarily limited budgets.
Due to this funding position we wrote to you on 23 January 2018, outlining our proposals for delivering a viable scheme for Midvale Rd. These proposals were summarised in the following options:
- Place the project on hold and continue to work together through Future St Helier group towards dedicated funding, via the then proposed infrastructure levy or other means. Of course, as you are aware, the infrastructure levy was in the event rejected by the Sates.
- Implement the bollard scheme as an interim measure using the £120,000 funding proposed by DfI, notwithstanding when, if ever, full funding would become available. This would address the immediate road safety concerns for pedestrians, calms traffic and improves cycle access in and out of town, but maybe considered a compromise in quality.
- Supplement DfI's £120,000 funding with the Parish's allocation of States Rates money to provide for the full scheme to be constructed.
- Have the Parish adopt the road and transfer the £120,000 DfI funding offered, to allow the Parish to take the project forward itself.
While we have since discussed other potential sources of funding at Future St Helier', regrettably none has yet been realised. Neither has there been a formal response from the Parish to the options suggested, to allow a way forward to be agreed.
It is important that the DfI is able to deliver its road safety works programme each year, both in terms of finance and resource planning as well as improving road safety. DfI has now undertaken a quarterly review of its funding and resource allocation for the remainder of 2018 and the forward programme for 2019.
Given the uncertainty that remains around this project, the review concluded that this scheme cannot be now realistically delivered within the programme. Consequently, the funding has now been reallocated to other priority road safety projects for delivery this year and 2019.
Should the funding situation change the project will re-included for prioritisation in future years' programmes. Whilst we regret this situation, we hope DfI is be able to progress the scheme with you at some point in the future"
While the Connétable did not respond to select any of the options offered, the funding and delivery position described in the letters has not changed.
St John's Road
As previously advised to and agreed with the Parish of St Helier, work to take forward a consultation on St John's Road will be taken forward once the consultation work and scheme development for First Tower has been completed.
At present this is projected to be during Q3 2019, it is only after the consultation process has been completed and options developed that it will be known whether there is a viable and publically acceptable scheme available to proceed with. Any scheme resulting from the consultation work will need to then be prioritised and incorporated into the Department's forward programme.