Raising sports centre charges will be "a last resort"

Tuesday 12 July 2016

International travel for local athletes will be restricted and charges to use States-run sporting centres cannot be ruled out following cuts to the Sports budget.

The Assistant Minister responsible for Sport told an Economic Affairs Scrunity Panel that difficult decisions had to be taken to meet budget targets set in the States’ recently released Medium Term Financial plan. Between next year and 2019, the overall yearly budget for Sport will be reduced by £545,000.

Constable Steve Pallett said that off-Island travel for athletes will suffer, but the Department for Economic Development, Tourism, Sport and Culture is hopeful savings can be made by sporting clubs taking responsibility for their own grounds and facilities.

The genuine hope is not to raise user costs at local sporting centres, the panel heard.

Mr Pallett said these will only go up “as an absolute last resort."

“It’s not something I support,” he said. “But we can never say never. At the end of the day, we have budgets to meet.”

He said there will be major costs to be met in managing and maintaining Jersey’s sporting facilities in coming years and the Department is budgeting with that in mind.

The pool at the States-run Les Quennevais Sports Centre will be at “the end of its workable life” within ten years, he said, adding: “I don’t need to remind the panel of the current state of Fort Regent."

“We don’t know what will be the level of (expenditure needed) for facilities moving forward,” he said.

Despite the budget cuts, Mr Pallett said the Ministry hopes to continue to meet the objectives set out in the Fit for the Future strategy – the main of goal of which it to get more Islanders to be more active.