Broad Street Closure
This is a classic example of top-down urban planning that overlooks everyday needs.
Broad Street was a vital traffic link and essential for disabled parking and bus access to key services like King Street and the Post Office. Pedestrianising it is “sheer folly” and a prime example of poor decision-making
Cost of Broad Street Improvements
The planned Broad Street Public Realm Improvement Scheme is projected to cost £2.5 million.
This includes:
Granite paving across the full street
Bespoke street furniture and planters
Biodiversity planting and lighting upgrades
Flush pedestrian surfaces and cycle access
Opportunity Cost: Road Resurfacing Needs
To put that £2.5 million in perspective:
According to infrastructure benchmarks, resurfacing a standard urban road in Jersey costs approximately £150,000–£250,000 per kilometre, depending on depth and drainage.
That means £2.5 million could resurface 10–15 kilometres of worn urban or parish roads—many of which are in urgent need of repair across St Brelade, St Helier, and rural lanes.
Broad Street was a vital traffic link and essential for disabled parking and bus access to key services like King Street and the Post Office. Pedestrianising it is “sheer folly” and a prime example of poor decision-making
Cost of Broad Street Improvements
The planned Broad Street Public Realm Improvement Scheme is projected to cost £2.5 million.
This includes:
Granite paving across the full street
Bespoke street furniture and planters
Biodiversity planting and lighting upgrades
Flush pedestrian surfaces and cycle access
Opportunity Cost: Road Resurfacing Needs
To put that £2.5 million in perspective:
According to infrastructure benchmarks, resurfacing a standard urban road in Jersey costs approximately £150,000–£250,000 per kilometre, depending on depth and drainage.
That means £2.5 million could resurface 10–15 kilometres of worn urban or parish roads—many of which are in urgent need of repair across St Brelade, St Helier, and rural lanes.
Alternatively, it could fund multiple smaller-scale accessibility upgrades, like dropped kerbs, tactile paving, and disabled parking bays island-wide.
Why It Feels Like a Vanity Project
Many islanders perceive the Broad Street scheme as a symbolic beautification effort rather than a practical investment. Here’s why:
Why It Feels Like a Vanity Project
Many islanders perceive the Broad Street scheme as a symbolic beautification effort rather than a practical investment. Here’s why:
- Functionality sacrificed: The closure removed disabled parking and direct bus access to key services like King Street and the Post Office.
- A local dentist, whose sedated patients are unable to walk long distances safely. The closure has directly compromised clinical care and patient wellbeing.
- Low public support: The closure drew mixed responses, and a petition to reopen Broad Street gathered over 1,200 signatures.
- Aesthetic over access: Granite paving and planters may enhance visual appeal, but they don’t address core transport or accessibility needs.
- Strategic disconnect: While the government cites alignment with the Common Strategic Plan, many feel this prioritizes image over infrastructure.
Jane Fox's Posting
This post is taken from a Jane Fox who posted this excellent piece on BBC Jersey's article on the Broad Street closure.
You speak to any, average, Jersey person and they will tell you that Broad Street is a vital traffic link to Charing Cross, York Street and The Parade and when travelling north from town. It provided perfect disabled parking for King Street, the banks and, importantly, the Post Office with buses stopping right outside.
The closure of Broad Street has got to be the single, most stupid idea that anybody could make and pedestrianising it is sheer folly.
Successive governments have continued to make fatuous decisions with regard to town and the island in general.
I fully support the dentist who is trying, desperately, to protect his patients who have had sedation. It is just not possible to walk any distance when under the effects of any kind of anaesthetic or sedation and I speak from experience.
I utterly abhor the fact that the government of Jersey no longer listens to the people which is what they are elected to do. No wonder the percentage of voters had dropped, year on year. It demonstrates perfectly that islanders have no reason to trust sitting, or prospective candidates, to do a job for which they are handsomely-paid, sadly.
It appears that, despite any good intentions politicians have when they declare their manifestos, they undergo some kind of mystical transformation and become imbued with a sense of megalomania and are indoctrinated to ‘toe the party line’. Jersey is going to the dogs with regard to politics in the island and I have feared for the future for some time now.
I was brought up to understand that voting is one’s civic duty but, in the face of so many, thoroughly-lamentable actions taken by the Council of Ministers and the failure, by them, to do what is right and good, I do wonder why I bother to vote.
There ceases to be any shadow of proper reasoning within the government and, I have to say, with great disappointment, that the Minister for Infrastructure, whom I have known for many decades, is no longer the person I once remember. He, too, seems to have succumbed to the dictatorship that exists within the House.
I wish I knew what the answer was to put Jersey back on the map for the right reasons and that money, and the ‘bottom line’ was not at the heart of government and the decisions it makes as it is today.
It was a sad day when the decision was taken to pay States members such a stupidly-high salary when some folks here are struggling to keep up with the rate of inflation and cost of living. It is sickening that Jersey people have to pay so much more for their weekly shopping than the UK.
It’s not a surprise to me at all that so many have left their island home to live in England, not least of all my best friend, born and raised in Jersey, who now lives in Devon and has a quality of life she could never have enjoyed here.
There is no more damning indictment of what has been allowed to happen to the island, particularly since COVID, and how prices have been allowed to skyrocket in its wake, pretty well unchecked. Whilst it is appreciated that most supplies have to be brought into the island, and that there are diverse costs associated with this, it does not excuse the massive hike in prices of basic foods like bread and butter.
To illustrate this, I would mention how the price of one of the staples of my shopping, Flora Light, has gone from £1.76 for 500g in 2020 to £3.45 today. This represents a percentage increase in five years of 96.02%. The cost of the same item in the UK is £2.80. This highlights only one item but I just don’t see how this level of pricing, across the board, can be justified and would really like somebody to explain it to me.
I also think there should be complete transparency in how decisions by the States are made and why so much money has been thrown at certain projects with nothing to show for it. I rest my case!
This post is taken from a Jane Fox who posted this excellent piece on BBC Jersey's article on the Broad Street closure.
You speak to any, average, Jersey person and they will tell you that Broad Street is a vital traffic link to Charing Cross, York Street and The Parade and when travelling north from town. It provided perfect disabled parking for King Street, the banks and, importantly, the Post Office with buses stopping right outside.
The closure of Broad Street has got to be the single, most stupid idea that anybody could make and pedestrianising it is sheer folly.
Successive governments have continued to make fatuous decisions with regard to town and the island in general.
I fully support the dentist who is trying, desperately, to protect his patients who have had sedation. It is just not possible to walk any distance when under the effects of any kind of anaesthetic or sedation and I speak from experience.
I utterly abhor the fact that the government of Jersey no longer listens to the people which is what they are elected to do. No wonder the percentage of voters had dropped, year on year. It demonstrates perfectly that islanders have no reason to trust sitting, or prospective candidates, to do a job for which they are handsomely-paid, sadly.
It appears that, despite any good intentions politicians have when they declare their manifestos, they undergo some kind of mystical transformation and become imbued with a sense of megalomania and are indoctrinated to ‘toe the party line’. Jersey is going to the dogs with regard to politics in the island and I have feared for the future for some time now.
I was brought up to understand that voting is one’s civic duty but, in the face of so many, thoroughly-lamentable actions taken by the Council of Ministers and the failure, by them, to do what is right and good, I do wonder why I bother to vote.
There ceases to be any shadow of proper reasoning within the government and, I have to say, with great disappointment, that the Minister for Infrastructure, whom I have known for many decades, is no longer the person I once remember. He, too, seems to have succumbed to the dictatorship that exists within the House.
I wish I knew what the answer was to put Jersey back on the map for the right reasons and that money, and the ‘bottom line’ was not at the heart of government and the decisions it makes as it is today.
It was a sad day when the decision was taken to pay States members such a stupidly-high salary when some folks here are struggling to keep up with the rate of inflation and cost of living. It is sickening that Jersey people have to pay so much more for their weekly shopping than the UK.
It’s not a surprise to me at all that so many have left their island home to live in England, not least of all my best friend, born and raised in Jersey, who now lives in Devon and has a quality of life she could never have enjoyed here.
There is no more damning indictment of what has been allowed to happen to the island, particularly since COVID, and how prices have been allowed to skyrocket in its wake, pretty well unchecked. Whilst it is appreciated that most supplies have to be brought into the island, and that there are diverse costs associated with this, it does not excuse the massive hike in prices of basic foods like bread and butter.
To illustrate this, I would mention how the price of one of the staples of my shopping, Flora Light, has gone from £1.76 for 500g in 2020 to £3.45 today. This represents a percentage increase in five years of 96.02%. The cost of the same item in the UK is £2.80. This highlights only one item but I just don’t see how this level of pricing, across the board, can be justified and would really like somebody to explain it to me.
I also think there should be complete transparency in how decisions by the States are made and why so much money has been thrown at certain projects with nothing to show for it. I rest my case!
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