Pavement parking crackdown needed, review suggests

Deputies Adrian Gabriel and Marc Leadbeater have set out how they plan to tackle driving offences

Penalty points, stronger laws to tackle pavement surfing and speed cameras should be introduced to tackle bad driving in Guernsey, an independent report has recommended.

The report was commissioned in the last political term by Home Affairs and Environment and Infrastructure at a cost of about £55,000.

Home Affairs President Marc Leadbeater said he had made improving road safety a priority for his committee as "the standard of driving locally had deteriorated in recent years".

Both committees said they were yet to consider the findings of the report and were set to have a joint meeting in the coming months on the issue.

Global infrastructure company AECOM, authors of the report, also suggested the States improve its data on road traffic offences, create a video portal for people to submit videos of incidents and install dashcams on police cars.

The 2024 report, released to the BBC under a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, suggested improving the laws to tackle noisy vehicles was a long-term goal for the States after politicians agreed to create a new decibel limit for noisy vehicles earlier this year.

Environment and Infrastructure President Adrian Garbriel said he understood some of the work towards the recommendations had already started - including fitting dashcams to police cars and improvements to how data was collected.

Safety is paramount

Deputy Leadbeater said the "standard of driving has gone down considerably" since he passed his test in 1988.

"I'm not just blaming incoming road users but local ones as well," he said.

"Resources to tackle this will be key, so we have narrowed down our priorities, but we cannot ignore road safety, it is paramount."

Data from an FOI request showed there were currently 90,794 vehicles registered in the island, compared with 88,532 in 2022, a rise of 2.6%.

Leadbeater said he wanted to make life easier for law enforcement by tackling driving offences.

"There are some quick wins we can do between the two committees," he said.

"We can automate things to make life easier for law enforcement too."

Deputy Gabriel agreed automation would be key to cutting driving offences but he did not believe speed cameras were a silver bullet.

"You have to be careful with speed cameras though, as they create a bubble of conformity," he said.

"However, mobile ones are also recommended and those could be an option."