Tuesday 10 February 2015
The Environment Department is notifying the public and businesses regarding the revisions to Town parking that would be required in order to accommodate the Public Services Department's plans to relocate the seasonal cruise ship tender landing point and coach tour pick up point to the eastern end of the Albert Pier and the area immediately to the west of the Bus Terminus respectively with effect from 15th March to 15th October.
This matter is currently the subject of a planning application from the Public Services Department which details the need to remove a significant number of parking spaces, the majority of which can be temporarily relocated to alternative sites around the Harbour.
The Environment Department is notifying the public and businesses regarding the revisions to Town parking that would be required in order to accommodate the Public Services Department's plans to relocate the seasonal cruise ship tender landing point and coach tour pick up point to the eastern end of the Albert Pier and the area immediately to the west of the Bus Terminus respectively with effect from 15th March to 15th October. This matter is currently the subject of a planning application from the Public Services Department which details the need to remove a significant number of parking spaces, the majority of which can be temporarily relocated to alternative sites around the Harbour.
In accordance with traffic legislation, the Environment Department is required by law to publicise any proposed changes to the current designation or permitted duration of parking in disc parking areas in certain parts of St Peter Port. This legal requirement does not relate to all of the areas required to accommodate the relocation of the cruise ship passenger handling facilities but for the purposes of completeness and to help the public understand the full package of measures that are being proposed to help mitigate for this loss of parking, the Environment Department has put together a summary of all the proposed parking changes that will need to be introduced in order to facilitate the various shore based requirements for the handling cruise ship passengers.
In total, forty-seven short term parking spaces and sixteen long term (small car) spaces would need to be removed, predominantly on a seasonal basis and Harbours are proposing fifty-four spaces in mitigation. In numerical terms these are:
Losses 15th March until 15th October
Albert Pier - 16 x 10-hour small car parking spaces and 18 x 2-hour standard spaces.
South Esplanade (landward side of bus terminus) - 22 x 1-hour spaces, 2 x ½-hour spaces and an un/loading bay.
Losses All Year
Albert Pier - 5 x 2-hour spaces.
Gains 15th March until 15th October
Castle Emplacement - 12 x 10-hour spaces in area currently reserved for fishermen at sea and a net gain of 22 x 10-hour spaces in the angled parking area given over to public parking originally on a temporary basis for the period of the harbour crane replacement project.
Albert Pier - 7 small car parking spaces in the vicinity of the marina office.
Crown Pier - 8 small car parking spaces at the end of the Round Top arm.
Reallocation 15th March until 15th October
St Julian's Emplacement - 1 coach bay reallocated as 5 x 2-hour disc parking.
South Esplanade - 40 x 10-hour disc parking spaces reallocated as 2-hour disc zone spaces for the cruise ship season.
Parking Proposals in Detail
On a seasonal basis at South Esplanade (on the landward side of the bus terminus), six coach bays would be provided at the expense of approximately twenty-two x one hour parking spaces. The coach bays would revert to one hour parking outside of the cruise ship season. In addition, two seasonal coach holdings bays would be created in close proximity to the Harbour Lights Pub in an area that is currently designated for un/loading. The coach holding bays would switch to half hour parking in the winter months. The lost un/loading facilities would be relocated immediately to the south with the loss of two x half hour disc parking spaces.
At the Albert Pier, eighteen x two hour spaces would be removed for the season to accommodate a dropping off/collecting point for minibuses, taxis, hire cars and cycles. Five further spaces would be removed on a permanent basis to provide visibility at a new pedestrian crossing that would link the area to the west of the marina shower block with the walkway on the southern side of the Victoria Marina. Sixteen x ten hour small car parking bays would be out of use for the cruise ship season to facilitate the passenger welcome and handling area.
Harbours are further proposing the removal of a seasonal coach parking bay at St Julians Pier to allow the creation of five spaces of short term parking in this area.
To compensate for the loss of the short term parking spaces towards the southern end of Town, the Environment Department is proposing to re-zone forty spaces at South Esplanade (adjacent to Havelet Bay) from a ten hour limit to a two hour limit for the cruise ship season. This is instead of utilising the aforementioned areas that Harbours have given over at the Castle Emplacement that were originally given over to parking as part of the Harbour Crane replacement project. These angled spaces adjacent to the Fisherman's Quay will instead remain as ten hour parking to directly compensate for ten hour disc zone parking being removed at Havelet. It is also proposed that a dozen further spaces adjacent to the Vivier slipway that are currently designated as parking for fishermen at sea, be used on a seasonal basis for the same purpose.
The sixteen x ten hour small car parking spaces removed on a seasonal basis from adjacent to Pier 17 on the Albert Pier would be replaced through a combination of eight small spaces at the end of the Round Top arm of the Crown Pier and provision of seven small car parking spaces by the Albert Pier marina office.
In all cases where parking changes are proposed to be made, the Environment Department will be placing notices on site advertising the proposals and asking for written comments by 16th February. In addition to this, a notice will be published in La Gazette section of the Guernsey Press outlining the proposals for parts of the public highway where there is a legislative requirement to undertake consultation in this manner. Harbours are currently revisiting whether they can allocate any other areas of the land they manage to public parking to mitigate as far as is practical the parking related impact of their proposals.
In total, the proposed measures are designed to mitigate all but nine of the spaces that would be lost and have been designed in such a way as to limit the overall effect of the changes on commuters and shoppers.
The Environment Department will consider all comments received before deciding whether to proceed with the reorganisation of the parking and as appropriate, make corresponding legislative changes. Plans are attached detailing all of the parking proposals, including those where there is no legislative requirement for "Gazette" public consultation. Interested parties are asked to provide written comments to the Environment Department by 16th February.
Given the complexity and scale of the parking changes, information regarding the consultation will also be added to the traffic section of the Environment Department's part of the States website that can be found at www.gov.gg/traveltraffictransport.
Contact Information:
Phil Ogier, Senior Traffic Services Officer
Environment Department
Tel: 243400
