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St Martin's 'School Street' initiative has been praised in a recent meeting between local officials and visiting French dignitaries.
The President of La Manche, Jean Morin (pictured top inset - Wikipedia) visited Guernsey last week.
It was his first formal visit to the island since being elected President of the departmental council in July 2021.
The visit was planned to provide opportunities to discuss a range of topics of mutual interest, with a particular focus on environmental matters including energy, climate change, and active travel.
During the visit President Morin met with Deputy Jonathan Le Tocq, Policy & Resources Committee member with responsibility for external relations, and Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez, President of the Committee for the Environment & Infrastructure, as well as officers from the States of Guernsey and representatives of Guernsey Electricity.
Discussions covered Guernsey and La Manche’s respective responses to climate change, energy generation and interconnectors, and active travel.
Pictured: Jean Morin, President of La Mancha and Deputy de Sausmarez.
Deputy Tocq, Policy & Resources Committee external relations lead, said the visit helped enhance the existing positive relationship.
“I was very pleased to welcome the President of La Manche to Guernsey this week, for his first formal visit to the island. Guernsey has a strong relationship with La Manche, our closest European neighbour, that has been developed over a number of years to encompass joint working on projects in a range of areas across government.
"Since the UK’s exit from the EU, engagement with France, including the department of La Manche, has been necessarily focused on implementation of the fisheries elements of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement. With that work now complete, we are able to recommence our engagement on a wider range of strategic issues. The visit this week was a great opportunity to discuss topics that are important both to Guernsey and to our neighbours, and I look forward to continuing to work closely with La Manche both bilaterally and through our cooperation agreement with Normandy.”
The President was taken to see the ‘School Street’ initiative at St Martin’s Primary School and had a demonstration of the ‘Walking Cycling Guernsey’ app, which was released in 2019 to make information on Ruettes Tranquilles easily accessible to those out and about across the Island.
Deputy Lindsay De Sausmarez, President of the Committee for the Environment & Infrastructure, said he was very interested in the 'School Street' scheme.
“I was delighted to meet the President of La Manche this week during his visit to Guernsey. While our jurisdictions are of different scales, we both face very similar challenges in respect of decarbonisation and the transition to a more financially and environmentally sustainable transport model that can improve the community’s quality of life.
"The visit provided an excellent opportunity for Guernsey to share its experiences in these areas, such as the ‘School Street’ initiative at St Martin’s Primary School, and to learn more from La Manche about the projects they are undertaking which might be able to inform development of policies locally.”
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