All roads within the St Helier ring road, roads in the Havre des Pas area and Gorey Village will be reduced to 20 miles per hour while the Grouville coast road will become 30 mph, it was announced on Tuesday.
And St Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft has said more parish roads could be targeted for reduced speed limits as he called for a clamp down on ‘anti-social’ and ‘dangerous’ drivers who flout speed restrictions.
He suggested that mobile speed trackers – unmanned devices which record a vehicle’s speed and number plate – should be used to reduce speeding and fine more drivers.
However, Infrastructure Minister Kevin Lewis has said that installing speed cameras in town is ‘not on the table’.
The changes are part of an ongoing review into speed limits with all Island roads set to be assessed by the end of this year.
Mr Crowcroft said that speeding in St Helier is a major problem and is the ‘issue constituents call me about most’.
The Constable added that he was ‘grateful’ to the minister for agreeing the changes but criticised the length of time they have taken to be signed off.
‘We had hoped the previous minister [Eddie Noel] would approve it,’ he said. ‘Havre des Pas has been requested for more than a year.
‘We are doing a lot of work to make sure the message gets across that it is unacceptable to drive in these heavily residential areas at more than 20 mph.’
Mr Crowcroft said that at weekends and during the evenings, a number of parish roads were being used as a ‘race track’ before urging parishioners to contact him, or their parish deputies, about particularly problematic areas.
‘There are a number of roads not within the initial 20 mph designation that we will be looking to extend it to – particularly St John’s Road.
‘With combined assets from the States police and honorary police, I think we are going to see quite a lot of people being fined for not complying.
‘I think it is justified for us to use technology to increase the rate of detection. It doesn’t have to criminalise law-abiding motorists.’
However, Deputy Lewis said the use of speed cameras was not being considered and that ‘we don’t want to penalise people’. He added that he had to strike the balance between keeping people safe and keeping traffic flowing.
