Traffic responds to parish road safety concerns

Information supplied by the Police to Traffic indicated that there was no pressing cause for alarm, although parishioners and members of the douzaine are aware of a number of near misses at the junction. 

In a detailed response, Traffic addressed the two junctions.

Requested Summerfield Road crossing

"One of the key factors in prioritising work is the data supplied to us by Guernsey Police which records incidents of road traffic collisions. In the last five years, ending March 2023, there have been four recorded incidents at the junction of La Route du Braye, Route des Coutures, Vale Avenue and Summerfield Road. Two of these have resulted in damage to property or vehicles and two have resulted in minor injuries, one of which involved a cyclist exiting Vale Avenue turning left, neither involved pedestrians or were at the point you refer to . This places the junction as joint 19^th of 217 junctions we are monitoring," the department said. 

Requested footpath at Route de Bordeaux and Castle Road

"There are no recorded incidents at the junction of Route de Bordeaux and Castle Road, however there is one incident at the junction with Les Petils but this appears to have involved damage to a parked car. Castle Road has seven recorded incidents of damage but no incidents that involved injuries. This road is rated as joint 110^th of 476 roads we monitor. However it should also be noted that only one of the seven incidents can be attributed to the area between the Route de Bordeaux junction and the corner slipway for Bordeaux harbour," Traffic said. 

"Since we last communicated about this area one of my colleagues has again reviewed the feasibility of adding in a marked footpath, he concluded that whilst it would be a viable possibility to add in a footpath all of the way from Les Petils to the corner slipway in Castle Road it would require removal of the old lines and realignment of the centre line markings in both Route de Bordeaux and Castle Road..."

Vale Senior Constable Richard Leale said he was grateful to the department for taking the concerns raised seriously and for addressing them fully.

"We are also aware from the department that there are substantial proposed works associated with The Bridge area as part of the WSP Mobility Plan produced for the Guernsey Housing Association for Development Areas in the Northern Parishes of Guernsey," said Mr Leale. 

Within that there were many proposals which, if adopted, would trigger a large-scale review of the roads, street furniture and infrastructure in the area so there was a lot that needed to be resolved before any improvements could be made.

"In the light of this, the douzaine decided it was content to leave these issues with Traffic, at least for the time being," Mr Leale said.