08 August 2006
The Transport and Technical Services Department (TTS) is delighted to find out the public has rated the majority of services the department provides as good or very good. These findings come from the Jersey Annual Social Survey for 2005, published today. The Survey has provided a valuable opportunity for the department to find out about who uses our parks and why, information on the customers of the Island’s markets, the travel habits of islanders and the public opinion of many of the department’s services.
TTS was keen to find out how the public viewed the services it provided and requested a number of questions to be included in this survey to find out the public’s opinion across the range of the department’s services . The public held positive views on most of these services. They were particularly pleased with the cleanliness of beaches, pavements and roads, the adequacy of road signs, the number of pedestrian crossings in town, the enforcement of parking restrictions in town, Bellozanne waste facilities, La Collette green waste facilities, enough street lighting, condition of pavements, the availability of cycle and motorcycle parking and the cleanliness of public toilets.
Much of the information will be used to help develop policy, in particular the findings on travel and transportation which will contribute to the development of initiatives for the Sustainable Travel and Transport Plan which will be publicised in the next few weeks.
A few services were not viewed so favourably. These are targets for improvement for the department. The public were generally not pleased with parking in town for work and for shopping. The St Helier Regeneration project will address this issue and come up with a Parking Strategy for St Helier .
Recycling facilities are still being developed and more facilities will be made available this year which will improve the service to the public, however, despite the poor public perception, recycling tonnages did increase last year. Jersey achieved 25% recycling in 2005 and it is hoped that based on the provision of more facilities and the willingness of the public to participate, the target of 32% by 2009 set in the Solid Waste strategy will be reached.
With an extra £1.5m capital allocation, in addition to the previous £850, 000, the Transport and Technical Services Department will be able to make significant improvements to the condition of the roads in 2006, which the public generally rated as being in an unacceptable condition.
Road works management was an area that had already been identified for improvement by the department and work is underway to minimise disruption and provide the public with appropriate and timely information, working in partnership and cooperation with the utility companies.
“It is important that the public is given the opportunity to influence policy and express their opinions on the services provided by States departments” said Deputy Guy de Faye , Minister for Transport and Technical Services. “The information we have obtained from this survey is very valuable to us and will be reviewing it in detail and using it to develop policy. I am really pleased to see the majority of the department’s services mentioned in the survey were rated highly. There are areas for improvement, and plans are in place to ensure the public see a change in the future. We will ask for opinion again in a future survey to ensure that the public is getting what they want.”
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