Paid parking back on States agenda

Paid parking is back on the agenda in Guernsey. A debate on the Road Transport Strategy in the States today (Wednesday) was dominated by talk of whether to make islanders pay to use public car parks.

The idea has been discussed several times over the last decade, but although deputies have sometimes backed the concept, they've never been able to agree the level of charges.

Paid parking was originally mooted as a means of funding the Road Transport Strategy which encompasses all aspects of travel by road whether in public or private vehicles. It includes a subsidy for the bus service.

Deputies voted by 35-11 that the RTS is dysfunctional and needs to be reviewed and perhaps amended.

Leading the charge was Vale Deputy Matt Fallaize who had harsh criticisms of the Environment Department.

"The Road Transport Strategy has collapsed," he said. "It's disintegrated. Its objectives are inconsistent and incompatible and I don't believe that we should be pumping several million pounds a year into [it] while the objectives of the Strategy are in the condition they are in and that's why I've called for a review of the whole thing."

The Environment Department must now produce a report on the RTS but its Minister, Deputy Peter Sirett, claims the deadline for a response simply didn't give them enough time.

He said: "We've acknowledged all along the Transport Strategy does have problems and we're committed to improving the situation with the Road Transport Strategy...What I could not accept was the fact that we were being tied to a date whereby we're supposed to come back with a fully costed Road Transport Strategy. And I'm sorry, that cannot be done."

Difficult though it may be, the Environment Department has until June 2011 to produce a report for the States.


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