Mad plan to waste £400,000 spoiling old harbours

 To join up the cycle paths from La Collette to Commercial buildings, the plan - now backed by a Roads Committee with a history of absurd anti-car-ism - will see the 'English' and 'French' harbours eaten into, to widen the road and include a dedicated cycle path - if Planning agree.

They say "The granite work would be in the same style as the existing walls, but all the existing granite and slipway cobbles would be left intact behind and beneath the new structures."

I don't believe they'll get it to look authentic, and I think it would spoil the look of these old harbours and slipways. Maybe not so much this one by South Pier ...

 .. but definitely this one. And look - there's a wide enough pavement on the wall side of the road that only gets used because there isn't a pavement on the water side.

So why not scrap the existing pavement, move the road over, and have a shared pavement and cycle path on the harbour side? A zebra crossing could allow access to the steps up to Pier Rd, it's not as if it would see any major use and hold up the traffic. Much cheaper to swap the road and pavement over than to spoil the old granite work!

Rozel landslip destroys old beach hut

 There has been a row of beach huts here for many years. See the blue one?...

 .. too much rain lately, and...

.. now there's a sad gap along the pier.

On the buses

 So it's Goodbye to these buses...

 .. and I assume this depot at La Collette will change hands too...

 .. as Connex say Farewell, to be replaced by LibertyBus on 2 Jan 2013.

 There are rows and rows of buses down there.

I've lost count how many of my shots are as ugly as... the back of a bus :)

 And here's what we'll be seeing next year - not all that keen on the lumpy front and that huge expanse of glass.

 Back isn't much better either.

 And there are smaller ones too...

.. thanks to my roving reporter for these two shots.

Well, Good Luck to the new operator - CT Plus, I hope the service turns out to be a credit to the island.

Back again - misc

At this time of year you can get this outfall into a sunset shot (La Mare, Greve d'Azette).

A now bare and tree-less Victoria Cottage Homes sees the newly replaced grass starting to take hold.

Down Wellington Road, De La Salle now sports brand new gates with the school crest looking smart...

... that figure has an oddly small head!

At the bottom of the hill, a shop now closed and boarded up.

Another school hill, and the smashed wall has been repaired.

Coming soon - TGI Fridays to enhance the waterfront.

How many great holidays began with a trip down Jersey's first Roll-On-Roll-Off ferry ramp at Albert Pier?

... it's going to be removed and the gap in the marina wall filled in.

... a better look at that container ship.

There has been building work for ages now on the coast road, I couldn't remember what used to be there...

... Google Streetview to the rescue!

New : Clos de (la) Charriere at the start of Plat Douet Rd, near La Grande Charriere slip...

Should it be Clos de la Charriere rather than de Charriere? The 'la' or 'le' (contracted to 'du') seems to apply to nouns (e.g. Clos de la Gare, Clos de la Bataille, Clos de la Fontaine) and they're naming this after La Charriere (the slipway - noun) rather than a name like Clos de Patier, Clos de Balmain, Clos de Mon Sejour, Clos de Maitland, etc.

Now there's a job that calls for a good head for heights! (Castle Street if you haven't been around since the 80s and don't recognise it!)

.. and to the left, the current state of the Esplanade with the latest office block complete (former Swanson's Hotel site).

Another before-and-after... the CoOp in Burrard/DonSt looks fairly nice IMHO here in Streetview, but in reality used to look a bit dark and gloomy...

.. it's now brighter and cheerful with new roof and upper windows.

A new church car-park underway in St.Mary, using part of a field over the road from the school and parish hall...

.. with a new gap in the graveyard wall. Hopefully this much needed facility will prevent congestion from all the on-street parking on the main road when the church is busy.

Misc, load of bollards

 Time to get out of the way some misc shots from the last few weeks...  Grouville beach and common...

 .. closer.

 You don't see so many of these any more, so I thought I'd snap one for old times sake, while there's still one left (Rozel - also one at La Place).

 Looks so lonely without anyone in costume around it :)

 The joy of Jersey, you drive around a corner in a lane and suddenly a view like this presents itself.

 The Dolmen Hougue des Geonnais - I can't help thinking it was a bit more open with less gorse around it last time I was there a few years back?

 Having found a way down a farm track (or three) to the coastal path, a quick shot of the coast in the evening light...

 .. Devil's Hole from a distance...

 .. and the reservoir building at Mourier Valley (there's often a good waterfall here, when the water table permits, going over the cliff onto the pebble beach).

 A tower in Grouville that's currently involved in plans to build a load of new homes around it.

 The path from the slipway near the Seymour Inn, starts as it means to carry on, but then gets narrower and narrower with hedges intruding, and finally gets impossible so we have to climb down to beach level (tide permitting of course).

 Eventually you end up on the beach for lack of a path, but you can nip back to the main road some way before Le Hurel Slip, using this footpath, to shorten a quick circular walk.

Originally, Oxford Road was a fairly long and winding affair, shown in yellow here... (Also in orangey colour, L'Avenue et Dolmen du Pré des Lumières and La Rue Le Masurier which are nearly 20 years young... they were created in the mid 1990s, the Coop Grande Marche was opened in Nov 2001, and the roads officially classified as Main Roads in 2002, La Rue Le Masurier now being part of the tortuous route of the circulatory systems of the ring road)...

 ... it cut through the middle of the Gas Place car parks. Now the new Town Park has done away with a stretch of it, leaving us with an absurd little stump of Oxford Road separated from the rest! Perhaps it could be more logically incorporated into Robin Place?

 Still, at least it's not the shortest road in Jersey, which possibly goes to Le Passage Gosset by the museum - little more than a parking space!

 While we're in the new park, here's the view towards David Place showing a path on what was part of Oxford Road...

 .. and the other way, a view featuring what's left of the gas holder - for how long?

 A park of tellytubby grassy knolls and some art installations. Definitely worth millions ;)

 .. except for local businesses who found their customers can't get there easily any more. The cafe here is still going, but the hair salon closed. Note also the over-the-top expensive paving, only recently finished and already marked by tyre rubber. No expense spared, but give us a pavement way too wide and do away with even more parking :(

 As if it wasn't bad enough, now it's sprouted some large signs!

 Railings, railings, railings...

 .. the spread of micromanagement and more and more bollards...

 .. now making an utter eyesore of the Weighbridge!

 Dear oh dear oh dear ... was the occasional parking there really so bad that this is better?!

Trust a private development to make their bollards interesting - this new batch at new offices on the old Swanson's site next to Payn St. (Esplanade to Seaton Place)... nicely varied and subtle... 10/10.