This Is Guernsey

ENVIRONMENT will write a report to help decide the fate of a horseshoe road off Victoria Avenue, the Royal Court has ruled. Former St Sampson’s constable Keith Tostevin, who handed over a petition objecting to the closure of the link at the former States housing estate, said he was pleased at the court’s decision.

‘It’s a matter of waiting now,’ he said.

‘The jurats asked me lots of questions and went out to deliberate for quite a while.

‘When they came back they said they wanted a report and now we have to wait and see what the Environment Department will recommend,’ he said.

The Guernsey Housing Association’s development plans for the area include closing the road.

But the Royal Court needs to give permission for that to happen to any public highway - something which has not happened since 1992, when it agreed to the closure of Courtil des Mielles, St Sampson’s.

Mr Tostevin, who is also a former douzenier in the parish, put forward the argument that the road has always been used as an escape road from Victoria Avenue, which is a dead end.

‘When there are football matches and other events held down here,’ he said, ‘there are cars parked on both sides of Victoria Avenue and instead of doing a three-point-turn, the horseshoe can be used to turn around.’

He believed the road could be joined to the sewage service road that leads to Les Banques, via Chateau des Marais.

In the long term it could help ease congestion once the new schools at Les Nicolles are completed, he said.