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Nearly £100,000 has been spent so far on a controversial government project to introduce a one-way system on a town road which has hit numerous obstacles along the way.
Data released following a request under the Freedom of Information (FOI) law has revealed that a total of £98,153 was spent in 2023 and the first part of 2024 on the project affecting the lower part of St John’s Road.
Announced last summer, the initial trial was supposed to make the narrow lower section of St John’s Road in St Helier one-way in a northbound direction – away from Cheapside.
However, this scheme was delayed three times following public pushback and apparent supply and labour issues.
Express later learnt that one of the supply issues was that £5,000 had been spent on ramps that did not meet the legal requirements for Jersey roads.
Pictured: The initial trial was supposed to make the narrow lower section of St John’s Road in St Helier one-way in a northbound direction.
Upon entering government earlier this year, new Infrastructure Minister Andy Jehan asked the transport team to review alternative options for the road.
Constable Jehan considered the review and recently announced plans to reverse the direction of the proposed one-way system.
This will allow southbound traffic only on the lower part of St John’s Road between the Parade Road junction and Cheapside.
The intention is to introduce the traffic management measure during the summer half term, with more details of the exact arrangements to be released nearer the time.
Pictured: Infrastructure Minister Andy Jehan recently announced plans to reverse the direction of the one-way traffic on St John’s Road.
New data published under the Freedom of Information (FOI) law has revealed the cost of the project so far.
It showed that £51,945 was spent on Infrastructure and Environment staff costs for the project, while £40,678 was spent on non-staff costs in 2023.
In 2024, £5,272 has been spent on staff costs and £258 on non-staff costs so far.
The response to the FOI request noted that "all internal work has been undertaken by existing Infrastructure and Environment (I&E) staff and no additional officers were employed specifically to work on this project".
"Therefore, the cost of these staff forms part of I&E’s staff budgets," it added.
The response to the FOI request also did not reveal the budget for Constable Jehan's review of alternative options for the scheme.
At the time that the response was authored, the study was being scoped and no budget had been allocated.
The information was therefore withheld under Article 10 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011, which applies when the authority does not hold the information being requested.
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