St
Helier Priorities
Rates
Few can argue that the current parish rating system is operating satisfactorily.
However, that is not an argument for scrapping it or dramatically dismantling
the basic structure. In order to operate effectively, the parish requires
an income source, which the rates have traditionally provided - and
this should continue. The problem facing St Helier is that a substantial
proportion of the rest of the Island is using the facilities of Jersey's
capital without paying for them. One of the worst offenders is the States
of Jersey, which maintains a large number of administrative buildings
in St Helier, which pay no rates to the parish at all. This is clearly
unfair, as it simply deprives St Helier of revenue to which the parish
would be entitled if the office buildings were owned by any other body.
The States of Jersey must review its position as a matter of urgency,
in order to end this unfair loading on parish services.
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Welfare
Welfare payments place an undue burden on parish finances and consequently
on the amounts of money that need to be levied via the rates. Few people
want to be welfare claimants, but inevitably, redundancies or personal
problems can lead to individuals and families being overwhelmed by their
problems and in need of assistance. Some local authority should provide
a "safety net", to ensure that basic human needs are met -
and the parish administration is an appropriate base for this type of
help, rather than a more bureaucratic and impersonal central department,
serving the entire Island. Some parishes currently retain their own
Welfare Officers, who are generally acknowledged as being able to provide
personalised and tailored services on an individual case basis. An approach
that has a higher chance of achieving positive results, from tackling
deviant behaviour to sourcing new employment.
Given the clear advantages to administering welfare via the parish,
it is also apparent that the costs of welfare should be shouldered by
the entire Island community rather than those parishes which are already
struggling with higher population densities. Anyone can suffer misfortune
in each of twelve parishes, but just because you happen to live in one
of them, that is not a sufficient reason for that parish to pay all
the ensuing welfare costs.
The unfair welfare charge is not unique to St Helier and the States
of Jersey should accept responsibility for regularising the existing
disproportionate situation as a matter of priority. This is one area
where Jersey can have the best of both worlds. The local knowledge and
personal approach offered by the parishes can continue, with the bill
being borne by the community as a whole out of States revenues. As a
guarantee of fairness, the Connetables should meet regularly with the
appropriate States Department to agree payments and procedures that
would apply in an equitable way to welfare claimants across the Island.
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Youth
It is easy to suggest that all parents should know exactly where their
children are and what they are doing at any given time, but it just
doesn't happen in real life. Particularly when some adolescents take
a pride in ensuring that their parents have no idea of what they are
really up to and, inevitably, unsupervised children will tend to get
into trouble of one sort or another.
A wide variety of solutions are available, ranging from more youth clubs
and "drop in" centres to reclaiming streets from traffic and
parked cars to create more leisure spaces.
One of the most obvious areas to explore, to encourage young people
to pursue educational or recreational pursuits during their leisure
time, is to extend school opening hours. All the familiar facilities
are readily available, with libraries open for extra study or reading
for pleasure, computer centres available for a vast array of pursuits
or simply classrooms left open for completing homework. Supervision
could be undertaken by teachers, who prefer to work later hours than
the norm, approved parent volunteers or a sub-category of paid supervisory
staff, which might comprise of former teachers seeking part-time work
or other part-timers with appropriate social work qualifications. It
seems to be a sheer waste of resources to leave so many of our school
buildings unused during the late afternoons and evenings, as well as
at the weekends.
Young people themselves appear to demand facilities that could be readily
satisfied by commercial enterprises, such as soft drinks bars and cinema
clubs. Even a call for cheaper bus fares indicates that a lower price
could stimulate a surge in demand.
As for the delinquent element, although community policing is one response,
a simple swap from the patrol car to mountain bikes might well provide
better street mobility and a more acceptable image for youngsters to
relate to.
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Bus
Shelters
The
design of bus shelters has changed substantially over the last decade.
Improved materials have allowed architects to guarantee a higher level
of structural resistance to vandalism and new technology has dramatically
transformed their functionality. Shelters at numerous city bus stops
around the world now feature electronic display boards showing the routes
that are running, together with the current waiting time to the next
bus. The displays can also communicate live information in the event
of accidents, breakdowns or other hold ups as well as advance warnings
of route or timetable changes.
Local authorities also equip shelters with the sort of internet terminals
that are often seen installed in public locations like airports. These
allow access to detailed information, not only on transport links, but
also to government websites etc. Fulfilling both an information and
entertainment function, they contribute to reducing the potential for
vandalistic behaviour. In addition, they contribute to the revenue earning
capacity of a bus shelter, which retains the potential to become a net
earner over time, given the possible application of both traditional
and electronic advertising on the site.
In the light of the clear benefits of public transport options, in terms
of reducing traffic congestion and pollution, the installation of bus
shelters must be a priority for St Helier. Keeping the public waiting
for buses in the howling wind and driving rain is not going to encourage
people to give up their cars or persuade parents to let their children
travel on buses.
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Traffic
Congestion
St Helier must be the only town in the world to complement a harbour
constructed on dry land with a ring road built like a maze. The St Helier
Town Centre Traffic Plan, currently under consideration, may have some
impact, but the Island requires more imaginative solutions to the growing
traffic problem, which relates directly to increasing levels of car
ownership. The morning rush hour is the peak congestion period, but
little serious effort has been made to relieve the situation by encouraging
flexi-time in St Helier offices. The recent attempt to adjust school
bus services was a fiasco that, unfortunately, badly undermined a well
intentioned idea.
Improved public transport is the only serious alternative to car use,
but Jersey continues to rely on outmoded transport models in the form
of fixed bus routes and prohibitively expensive taxis. There has been
no serious attempt to provide integrated transport solutions, which
implies being able to use several modes of travel to get from A to B.
The bus service suffers from a series of problems, the most obvious
being the lack of bus lanes. This leaves the buses queuing in the same
traffic jams as all the cars. One possible solution is to create time
limited bus lanes on major feeder routes into St Helier during periods
of maximum congestion. As an example, the inner, inbound lane of Victoria
Avenue could be restricted to buses only between 0730 and 0900 hrs in
the morning, creating a clear advantage for bus travellers.
The bus routes also suffer from linkage to a central hub in St Helier
at the Weighbridge. There are no cross routes to join up the outer limits
of the existing structure, as well as no express routes. One obvious
express route must surely run between St Helier and the Airport, which
would then allow the Airport to form a satellite transport hub, operating
more localised bus routes around St Brelade, St Peter and St Ouen. There
are clearly a number of other express routing destinations, but the
concept can be extended to a micro-route level by using a mix of vehicles.
By introducing a limited number of stops onto an express route, a series
of satellite hubs can be created. Thus to follow the Airport example,
standard buses could stop at Goose Green, St Aubin and Quenevais en
route to the Airport, allowing passengers to transfer to smaller "people
carrier" vehicles that could follow routes round large housing
estates or even offer a "to the door" service. This type of
operation could be easily applied throughout St Helier as a logical
development of the popular Hoppa bus scheme.
Taxis pose a more difficult problem, but have the essential advantage
of providing a "door to door" service. The only way to reduce
the cost of fares is to introduce subsidies in one form or another.
The other alternative is to change the basic nature of the service from
individual hire from pick up to destination to multiple hire. This would
reduce fares by allowing taxi drivers to pick up more than one fare
at a time, probably by using a larger than normal vehicle, and then
staging a series of drop offs along a more circuitous route. This technique
is already practiced by large numbers of people using standard taxis,
by negotiating routings whilst waiting in line for the next ride, but
it could easily be extended and regularised to provide the compromise
transport solution between taxis and buses.
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