AS any casual observer may see, most of Jersey’s roads are in a poor state. Years of neglect have created a sorry-looking network of dug-up, patched-up, bodged and bumpy highways and byways, completely out of keeping with the Island’s reputation as a place of beauty and a high-class international finance centre.

Now, as our News Focus report on pages 12 and 13 makes clear today, the problem is not just an aesthetic one but also a matter with serious legal implications and, not before time, growing political significance. Holes in the road sound like the very stuff of parish pump trivia; unfortunately, that is how they appear to have been treated by the authorities for the past 20 years or so. For about the same length of time, the equally serious neglect of the hedges and roadside walls from which the interior of the Island derives its character has also contributed to a glum state of affairs for which it is difficult to suggest any sensible explanation.

Money is a factor, of course, but while budgets at both States and parish level are feeling the squeeze at present, the period in question also saw Jersey’s public finances in a very healthy state indeed. Moreover, the extra duty imposed on fuel in place of the old road fund licence was supposed to be ring-fenced for upkeep of the roads. So what went wrong?

It looks like a combination of poorly co-ordinated trenchworks, over-zealous cost-cutting, buck-passing and, crucially, too low a priority being given to basic infrastructure maintenance which, while essential, can hardly have been seen as glamorous by comparison with more enticing projects.

The results of this sustained underinvestment are now dangerous as well as ugly. To what extent the state of our roads may have contributed to recent serious traffic accidents is open to question, but there is less doubt about the dangers to cyclists and pedestrians.

As our special report reveals, these problems are exacerbated by legislative shortcomings. Remarkably, the Transport and Technical Services department claims to have no legal obligation to keep the main roads in a safe state – a bold assertion which they presumably have no wish to test in a court of law. The absence of a streetworks law, meanwhile, leaves them powerless to insist that surfaces are satisfactorily reinstated after roadworks – another loophole in clear need of plugging.

Transport Minister Mike Jackson has promised new legislation to do just that. It would be more welcome still were his ministerial legacy also to include a proposal for unifying States and parish budget planning in a brief and intensive programme of major investment to restore the Island’s shamefully neglected roads to an acceptable modern standard.