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STATEMENT TO BE MADE BY THE MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE ON TUESDAY 19TH MAY 2020
Reallocation of road space
As activity in town grows, with more shops opening and al fresco dining being permissible, we need to be able to adapt our streets in the light of public health advice to meet our changing needs and support the commercial vibrancy of St. Helier.
I am pleased to inform members, my team has been working on a programme of measures to reallocate space in town to assist with physical distancing, support commerce and provide for better walking and cycling routes.
The first measure we are looking at is the temporary closure of Broad Street to motor traffic except for commercial deliveries between specified times. It is planned that the temporary closure will start from Saturday 23rd May, the beginning of the summer half- term.
Broad Street provides a useful alternative to King Street, which will become progressively more busy having to accommodate increased queuing outside its many popular shops. Broad Street also has the potential to provide for alfresco areas for food outlets.
Obviously, we have been, and will continue, to liaise with the Parish of St. Helier, and I am grateful for their continued assistance in rolling this out to other areas. I met with the Connétable yesterday and we were both very happy with the draft proposals and congratulated the team on the work they had done. We are aware that some disabled parking bays will be affected, and we are reviewing alternative locations for these.
As time is short and the need pressing, the changes to traffic management will in effect be rapidly prototyped and adapted as the need arises or conditions change. We are in uncertain times, we cannot rely on traffic modelling to give us the answers. Traffic volumes will be changing as government lockdown restrictions are reduced. Peoples' reactions are difficult to predict. Having a progressive programme allows us to tweak schemes and to adapt as we work.
Therefore, I will not be going into any detail on the rest of the proposals at this time because there is still much work to be done, in particular consultation with the relevant parties. I want the feasibility and issues to be further explored for each location before publicised. My team need to focus on working through the projects and not be distracted with answering premature questions.
I hope this will come as welcome news. Some members were asking me questions on this topic at the last sitting and I did indicate that we were aware of the needs. We will be issuing a media release with more detail of the impending closure later today.