Tuesday 10 February 2015
Open Lines Column Enquiry:
Here we go again, another tax on the local people, most of us, 99.9% are sensible drinkers but because of the odd few idiots we are all expected to pay the price. This will not stop them drinking as well you know, they will just find another way and accept either being poorer or turn to crime.
I can't afford to go out and drink, apart for the odd occasion, because it costs too much, as does everything else in this godforsaken island, so I tend to drink sensibly at home, which is more affordable. I do not expect to be punished for other people's stupid mistakes, and as I have said they will carry on drinking anyway. They have to want to stop drinking to excess, no one else can decide for them, and it can't be as bad as the HSSD are saying this problem is as it has already been confirmed people are actually living longer in this day and age.
There is enough going on at the moment with all these ridiculous and unnecessary taxes, paid parking, GST still looming, emissions and width, refuse charges, now this, etc., etc. Enough is enough, for goodness sake leave us alone. We will decide what we put into our bodies, not you. Instead look at the more important things this island should be tackling - better pensions for the elderly and cost cutting by the States for starters. There is enough in place to deal with this problem and alcohol is not being over marketed, far from it. These people have to want to help themselves. They are not children and neither are we, therefore we do not need to be dictated to by the States or anyone else for that matter.
I don't think I have been this fed up in a long time and it's because I have had a belly full of the States, not all of them, but certainly a fair few, mainly the Environment springs to mind. The lot of them should be thrown out, along with their pathetic full of holes Transport Strategy.
While on the subject of that, it has been alleged that although Deputy Burford said she would not interfere with the other parts of the island for paid parking, instead it's been said she is going to change the 10-hour parking times on the outskirts of Town in residential areas and reduce these areas time limit so people will no longer be able to park there any more for long stay parking. Parking in these areas was not a problem until paid parking reared its ugly head. If this is true, which I am led to believe it is, then as far as I am concerned she has broken her promise by saying she would not charge for these areas, but she may as well have, because now we'll be forced onto the paid parking bays anyway by losing those 10-hour spaces on the outskirts of Town. Where will all these extra cars park? You really think there will be enough 10-hour parking when we don't have enough spaces now? But I guess this is not your problem, you just cause them with your unnecessary meddling and trying to fix things that do not need fixing.
Environment Department Response:
The principal reason your correspondent has put pen to paper appears to be in relation to duties levied on alcohol, a matter which is not the responsibility of the Environment Department. It goes on to raise a whole host of other issues regarding States taxation policies and makes a number of suggestions as to where States priorities should lie. Only then does it turn to the issue of parking and, in particular, to suggestions that 10 hour parking on the outskirts of St Peter Port will be turned into residents parking.
By way of background, the Environment Department has successfully operated a two-tier resident's parking scheme in a number of fairly centrally located Town streets for over a decade. The scheme enables residents in the locality of disc controlled parking to apply for a simple overstay permit authorising them to park their vehicles overnight in disc parking places in designated streets within a reasonable walking distance from their residence until 09:30hrs the following morning.
An extended residential parking scheme allows residents in specified areas to overstay the stipulated short-term disc parking zones for an additional ten hours.
These permits are designed to try and cut out unnecessary vehicle movements by residents, primarily those that live and work in St Peter Port, thereby reducing vehicle movements at peak times of the day and freeing up commuter parking spaces on the Piers for other commuters who otherwise might have parked in streets now occupied by residents' vehicles and vice-versa.
Whilst paid parking would inevitably have an effect on demand for any long-term parking spaces in St Peter Port that are outside of the proposed "paid" zones, the proposals to extend the current residents parking scheme pre-date the current paid parking proposals and will give residents in other areas of Town a realistic opportunity to be able to park in close proximity to their properties than they might otherwise have. It should also be recognised that many of these spaces are located in built up areas where off-road private parking is not readily available to residents.
In general terms, the total number of spaces being utilised for long-term parking in St Peter Port will not materially change under these proposals, but the parking habits of various users will inevitably react to the changes brought about by a residents parking scheme and any subsequent paid parking scheme that may be implemented by the States.
Contact Information:
Karl Guille, Traffic and Transport Services Manager
Environment Department
Tel: 243400
