512 miles out - minister wrong-footed on way to dance event

Wednesday 08 July 2015

Jersey’s 'Sports Minister' was led on a merry dance at the weekend when someone in his department booked him on a flight to the wrong airport in Eastern Europe.

St Brelade Constable Steve Pallett was supposed to fly to Bucharest in Romania on Saturday to pick up the flag for the Dance World Cup - a huge event Jersey is hosting next summer - but he landed hundreds of miles away in Budapest in Hungary instead.

Constable Pallett - who has responsibility for sport as Assistant Economic Development Minister - said: “I’ve had better weekends, put it that way. It was a really disappointing way to end what was a really good week with the Island Games. I missed the closing ceremony as I was always going to go and pick up the flag from the Dance Cup organisers in Bucharest."

It was when he was about to land that he realised something didn’t feel right and that he needed to be in Bucharest and not Budapest.

The story - which started out as a scoop for Channel 103FM - has now been picked up by the national media, and the Constable was given a grilling on the Today Show on Radio 4 this morning.

Constable Pallett said if the two European cities had been as different as Madrid and Rome he's sure the error wouldn't have happened and says he can sort of understand the embarrassing mistake.

He said: “It’s an administrative error in the department but it’s right that I apologise to the taxpayer, it’s wasted just under £1,000 but it’s really disappointing that I haven’t been able to pick the flag up.

“There’s going to be between 3,000 and 5,000 dancers coming next year. It’s a really big event. I had a speech organised and it was a chance to promote Jersey.

“My first thought was can I get to Bucharest now, but I thought I’d better cut my losses and I came home.

"I've spoken to the Chief Minister who was disappointed that his Assistant Minister was sent somewhere he didn’t need to go."

Jersey last hosted the Dance World Cup in 2009 and next year's event will be a big boost to tourism.

Constable Pallett said: “It’s a bit like the Island Games, we should have full hotels for the time they are here, eating out – all the things that are good for our economy. It’s an extra boost to kick off our season."