Guernsey

Contact

Mrs Pat Wisher
Tel: 01481 268088
Email
patwisher@cwgsy.net
Maison Du Rocher
Rue De La Vallee
Torteval
Guernsey
GY8 0PW
LIVING STREETS GUERNSEY (STEPS) ACHIEVEMENTS SO FAR

STEPS was launched in May 2002 to coincide with Guernsey's Car Free Day. One of its key objectives is to work with all groups and agencies in the island to highlight pedestrian issues.

STEPS is a branch of Living Streets in the UK (previously known as the Pedestrians Association). The Living Streets manifesto goes much further than simply pedestrian issues. It seeks to influence urban planning to improve the environment for everyone, and especially to bring community life back into our streets. Therefore STEPS has been taking every opportunity to apply this manifesto in Guernsey - as well as tackling pedestrian safety issues that are very specific to Guernsey.

Latest News from Guernsey

A safe route to St. Sampson's High and Le Murier Special Needs School

Living Streets, Guernsey has been campaigning for the last two years for a safe route using footpaths and green lanes so that children from St. Peter Port (Guernsey's main Town) can walk or cycle to their new schools in the north of the island.

Due to a re-organisation of secondary education in the island it was decided to reduce the number of secondary schools from 4 to 3 and to re-build each of the three schools over a period of time.  The first to be rebuilt is St. Sampson's Secondary which has a brand new campus and is linked to a secondary special needs school.  Rebranded as a High School the build cost for the two schools was around £46 million. 

The school designated to close was St. Peter Port Secondary.  Students are being distributed between St. Sampson's High and another secondary school in the west of the island.

We had already won the battle for a one way system around the new schools with a wide pavement and a cycle contraflow so that students from the north of the island can now walk and cycle in safety.  Our Environment Department has also made the road system 20mph and put in traffic calming.

But children from the south of the island who used to go to St. Peter Secondary School (which closed in July) face a very long journey to their new school.   These students have been used to walking and cycling to their local school and now face the prospect of not only having to move to a new school but also having to negotiate some of the most dangerous roads in the island.

Our green lane route would allow these students to take a direct route through the beautiful green lung between St. Peter Port and St. Sampson's and go into the back of the new school grounds.  The route is about one mile.

The Environment Department (with whom we have been working) at first supported the idea of the green lane route but now consider they have done their bit by providing the one way system.  They intend to provide school buses for the children from the south.  We are not against school buses (far from it) but we do think that these students should have the same opportunities as those in St. Sampson - ie. the option of walking, cycling or catching the bus.  We keep stressing the health benefits of walking or cycling to school but to no avail.

In July 2008 we opened up the route so that parents, children, local residents and politicians could see what we were trying to achieve.  More than 60 islanders took part and many were amazed at how little time it took to walk to the school (about 15 minutes). 

The route is not without its difficulties.  Living Streets, Guernsey has spent many months researching for the owners of the footpaths and tracks and identifying rights of way.   We have also identified what is needed to upgrade the route and secured a long term maintenance agreement.  After presenting all our information to the Environment Department they still maintained that they were not making this a priority and did not have the funding to make it happen. 

St. Peter Port Secondary School has been fulling supporting our work and so has the local feeder primary school. The Guernsey media has also been supportive and given us a great deal of air time and space in the local newspaper, including a centre page spread.

Living Streets, Guernsey therefore decided to go it alone and develop the route for the benefit of the community and the children.  We started fund raising in January 2009 and have gained a great deal of support from local companies who have provided finance or help in kind.  Many companies who are supporting us have referred to this as an important environmental project.  It saddens us that our politicians do not share our vision.

We have been facing many hurdles (and still are) but we are determined to get this route up and running for the benefit of future generations of children from St. Peter Port.