A FEW short months before the schools at Les Nicolles are due to open and the war of words between two senior States departments over access and – more crucially – child safety has actually intensified.

What is happening is rather unedifying and, as is the way, ends up reflecting badly on government as a whole.

Islanders will see the situation rather simply. The States decided to put a huge school in an area serviced by one of the most dangerous roads in the island for pedestrians.

It did so knowing that a large number of children would want to walk or cycle to their new school. That meant ensuring measures were put in place so that they could do so.

Yet six months from the schools going live, parents and taxpayers are treated to the spectacle of Environment and Education slugging it out over what is the best way of ensuring that youngsters are not hurt, maimed or actually killed en route to or from what should be a building everyone can take pride in but which is now dominated by safety issues.

Education may have come in for criticism over other aspects of its responsibilities but it is difficult not to have sympathy for its staff and board over this matter. What it unquestioningly takes seriously is looking after the young people in its care.

The proposals it put forward to mitigate the traffic problems in the approaches to Les Nicolles may have been overkill, but the department believed they would work.

Environment’s reasoning behind the delays and foot-dragging are, from Education’s latest response, hard to take seriously.

Anyone reading the various statements will wonder whether Environment is simply out to make a point: we know best.

Education has used some of the UK’s best traffic consultants and worked alongside Environment’s own engineers to try to produce an access plan.

Yet Environment has simply released its latest proposals – good or bad – without reference to Education. That’s not just discourteous, it smacks of someone with an agenda.

As such, Education has not been able to comment on the latest proposals so parents still do not know whether their children can walk or ride safely to school.