SOMEWHAT bafflingly, Jersey’s roads are a disgrace. Decades of neglect and confusion have created a legacy of scruffy, bumpy, patched-up surfaces festooned with tatty bollards and worn-out markings and lined with damaged banks and deteriorating roadside walls.

In particular, the main roads – which are the responsibility of the States, as distinct from the parishes – present a depressing counterpoint to claims that the Island is a world-class anything. Its roads make it look more like a bankrupt backwater.

This state of affairs is not only dispiriting for those who live here, but also deeply unimpressive to those who visit, whether for business or pleasure. How it has come about over a period in which Jersey has enjoyed higher living standards and budget surpluses than most of the rest of the world is perhaps less important than the question of what can be done about it now that the party appears to be over.

Ironically enough, it has taken a recession to smooth over some of the cracks, with the roads moving higher up the agenda as one of the main beneficiaries of the Treasury’s £44 million economic stimulus package.

A Scrutiny report this week expressed concerns that the stimulus money was not finding its way through into the economy quickly enough. As far as this particular project is concerned, it is
even more remarkable that it has taken so long for States Members to notice, and begin to take seriously, the state of our highways and byways in the first place.

However belated, though, the acceleration of the road resurfacing programme is to be welcomed as the stimulus measure that will benefit the most Islanders. As enlightened authorities have proved elsewhere, a demonstration that boring basics of this kind are taken seriously can change the way people think and feel about where they live, and so have a benign effect on everything from crime rates to community spirit.

The Council of Ministers should seize this opportunity to turn a problem to positive advantage. More of the emergency stimulus funds should be directed over the next few years to a properly ‘joined up’ and thought out pubic works project, providing local employment opportunities and progressively bringing Jersey’s road up to acceptable modern standards.