Development of the St Peter's valley roadside path (FOI)

​Request

A.

What has been spent to date on the development of the St Peter's valley roadside path, including on external consultants?

B.

What is the final estimated total cost for developing the proposal and building the path and how has this figure been arrived at?

C.

Where are the funds coming from?

D.

On the basis the pathway has been proposed to improve public safety, how many of the eight serious accidents noted in the consultants report involve pedestrians and cyclists as opposed to cars or heavy duty vehicles? (please list separately)

E.

Given the concerns about the valley being the second most dangerous road in the island, has a permanent moratorium been put on the development of the landfill at Granite Products and the corresponding 25% increase in heavy goods traffic using the road and, if not ,what is the status of this proposal?

F.

What are the ongoing maintenance costs for the valley path estimated as and how will these be met?

G.

Given the publicised structural problems as noted in the public consultation on the pathway with the valley road, what additional funds have been set aside to rectify this?

H.

What other measures were considered to improve all road users safety prior to embarking on the development of a pathway.

Response

A.

£200k has been spent on the development of the scheme to date including external consultant costs. The development of the scheme has included traffic surveys, topographic surveys, engineering assessments, ecology surveys and mitigation strategy development, landscape assessments, cost plan development, a public consultation, planning application development and submission and advice on land acquisitions.

B.

The final estimated total for developing the proposal and the building of the path is £1.7m. This is made up of the £200k spent in developing the proposed scheme to date and £1.5m estimated for construction costs, legal fees and land acquisitions. This estimate will be finalised once all outstanding issues with planning, landowner, stakeholder and construction issues are known. The estimate has been prepared in line with industry standard methodologies.

C.

Funding will be provided from a combination of States capital funding and a contribution via a Planning Obligation Agreement from an associated planning application which is being finalised. Details of the Planning Obligation Agreement are confidential at this stage.

D.

Of the eight serious accidents referred to in the Planning Statement one involved a cyclist and none included pedestrians. However, included in the slight accidents there were two cyclists, two pedestrians and one horse. One of the pedestrian incidents involved a school child.

E.

St Peter’s Valley is the second most dangerous “rural” road on the Island and not the second most dangerous road on the Island. This assessment has been made based on previous accident statistics.  A permanent moratorium has not been put on the development of the landfill at Granite Products.

Transport and Technical Services (TTS) cannot prevent private landowners submitting planning applications but are consulted by the Planning department, as Statutory Consultees, for applications which impact on the public highway. As part of this consultation process, TTS provided comments on the Granite Products application which recommended to the Planning Minister that the applicant be required to improve road safety in the valley before their infill operation could commence. It was agreed in principle with the applicant that these road safety improvements could be achieved via contributions to the development and delivery of the valley path which TTS was already keen to provide.

The Planning Minister has indicated that he is minded to approve the Granite Products
planning application but awaits the agreement of an associated Planning Obligation Agreement.

F.

The States of Jersey currently carries out maintenance on the existing sections of the path so the increase in maintenance costs to the States will be limited.   The ongoing maintenance costs of the valley path have not been finally determined and are subject to finalisation of the scheme. Reduction of future maintenance costs has been a key requirement of the design process and has been considered in the choice of surfacing, fencing and planting schemes. That said, ongoing maintenance will be required to keep the path serviceable and safe. This maintenance can be accommodated in the overall TTS maintenance budgets.

G.

There have been some localised stability issues with sections of the road edge and the adjoining fields in the past with repairs being carried out as appropriate. The construction of the valley path will be generally beneficial to this situation as in some sections where the level of the path is being raised above existing field level there will be an element of additional support provided to the road edge. Where appropriate, sympathetic repairs to acquired road side walls to maintain their condition will be included in the project. This is an ongoing issue between the public and the landowners along the valley and no additional funds have been set aside to address this.

H.

The cost of widening the road to provide a roadside pavement was assessed as not economically viable, due to the need for extensive high retaining walls to support the road from the lower meadows and woodland and the need to acquire and demolish structures and buildings in constrained locations. In addition the landscape assessment showed that the character impact of a roadside pavement urbanising the valley would be unlikely to meet planning policy.

Other options for road safety improvements were considered and rejected due to the limited road width in the valley. The existing road is not consistently wide enough to accommodate any other form of road safety improvements for pedestrians and, as such, the road side path is the only practical solution which provides enhanced safety for vulnerable road users such
as walkers and cyclists and is in keeping with the unique valley setting.