SCHOOL caretaker Terry Martel has directed Capelles traffic for 13 years but he is now calling for help because of the proposed one-way.
Mr Martel (pictured) said that with the Baubigny system sending more cars towards him at Hautes Capelles School, changes must be made to the traffic lights there to enable him to manage the traffic flow.
‘I only ask that between 3 and about 3.40pm the traffic lights stay green for a bit longer so I can send more cars through, otherwise it will be a nightmare,’ he said.
At 3.15pm yesterday, Mr Martel stood in Route des Capelles and simultaneously managed traffic queues from the direction of St Peter Port, Capelles Stores and from Les Effards, as well as cars entering and exiting the school and community centre, parents and children crossing the road, a few cyclists and a bus. He said that despite doing this job for so long, nobody from either Education or Environment had asked for his insight into the area’s traffic.
‘Regardless of weather, road closures or sports-day carpark overfills, I’ve been here working with the traffic flow, so I really can’t understand why they haven’t consulted me.’
He said he would have liked somebody from the States to come and watch him do his job so that they could understand how the traffic worked.
‘You really can’t understand it without seeing it for yourself.
‘They would have saved a lot of time and effort if they had just come one afternoon and watched it all in action,’ he said.
School mum Nicky Walsh, 41, said she thought the traffic at the Capelles filter would become very congested when the new schools opened.
‘I usually wait until the bell has rung before I even set off to come and pick up my son because the traffic here is such a nightmare.
Mrs Walsh, an accountant, with an eight-year-old son at Hautes Capelles, said pedestrian safety should take priority over traffic and believed that ‘if making the road one-way helps this, then it is a good idea, as long as it does not encourage drivers to speed up’.
She praised caretaker Mr Martel for his work and said without him the whole system would fall apart.
‘Terry is very good at his job: everyone knows him by name.
‘If they want to see how the traffic works, he is the best person to ask.’
The caretaker said he was very familiar with the students and parents and last Christmas received more than 40 bottles of wine from them.
Article posted on 11th June, 2008 - 2.29pm
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