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The proponents of the 'Better Travel Plan' for the north of Guernsey say it will "mitigate and hopefully minimise any negative impacts" of the looming increase in new houses being built in St Sampson's
The President and Vice President of the Committee for Environment and Infrastructure have been fronting the launch this week.
Deputies Lindsay de Sausmarez and Adrian Gabriel told Express in an extended interview that the plan has come out of proactive preparation ahead of an expected increase of up to 1,000 new homes, across a number of new developments in close proximity to one another.
"Guernsey really needs a lot of new homes. And (people) are also probably aware that where those homes are likely to come forward first is in a quite a sort of small geographical area in the north of the island," said Deputy de Sausmarez.
"And we know that a lot of the existing current residents are concerned about the number of new homes and the traffic impact that that could have. And so we wanted to be proactive and actually put in place a package of measures to mitigate and hopefully minimise any negative impacts. And actually, we think that these measures will also provide some benefits to residents of the area as well."
Pictured: E&I said the proposals will improve travel choices for everyone.
Both politicians said the proposals - which include new pedestrian and cycle lanes, new zebra crossings and other road safety initiatives, and a series of Ruettes des Habitants - will help increase the travel choices available to people living in the affected areas.
They say that the roads will be safer for cyclists and pedestrians once some aspects of the Plan start being phased in.
"We know that choice is important because people don't feel as though they really have it at the moment," said Deputy de Sausmarez. "I know more than one household or family he lives in the vicinity of Delancey and doesn't feel as though it's safe enough to walk with small children to the park. And they don't feel as though they've got that choice.
"We know from every survey that we've ever done because people tell us very, very clearly that they would like to be able to make some active choices about how they get from A to B depending on what their journey needs. So sometimes it's going to be you know, a car journey that's going to be the most sensible option for them but actually sometimes especially for shorter journeys they would like to hop on a bike perhaps or just walk or maybe use a bus. But we know there are barriers in the way to that. And that's really what this package of measures is about. It's about giving people more choice."
Acknowledging there will be some apprehension about the changes proposed, Deputy Gabriel said they are keen to talk the Plan through with as many people as possible.
"We want the public to engage with us," he said.
"We're working with the Douzines, both St Sampsons and the Vale. We've got an interactive map online, there's also hardcopy maps, and we're hoping to have drop in sessions at the Douzaines as well so people can come come and chat."
Deputy Gabriel confirmed the first aspect of the Plan which will introduced in phases is the Ruettes des Habitants scheme - which will see a number of roads have their access restricted to properties only, with no through traffic allowed.
Pictured: All of these roads, and some more, would become Ruettes des Habitants under the Better Transport Plan.
Deputy de Sausmarez is expecting some opposition to some of the proposals in the Plan, but she said the one thing we can't do is nothing.
"...it's also worth sort of explaining that there's no 'no change' option here," she said.
"The area is going to be impacted by the developments that are going to be coming forward and if we just sat back and did nothing, we know that those impacts would be really overwhelmingly negative. So we wanted to be proactive and do something in advance and alongside those developments to make sure that infrastructure is an iterative thing. It's not a sort of silver bullet not a magic wand, but we do want to be making sure that the area is improving in terms of its infrastructure, and that is giving people, real, additional life choices that they don't currently have and that they tell us they want."
WATCH: Transport plan for the north launched
E&I: Plan will "improve choices and experience"
EXPLAINED: How a Ruette des Habitants will affect you
"Sensible, balanced solutions" are needed
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