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2.16 Deputy K.C. Lewis of the Minister for Education, Sport and Culture regarding recommissioning of the swimming pool at Fort Regent:
Further to reports that Jersey will bid for the 2015 Island Games, will the Minister be seeking to recommission the swimming pool at Fort Regent?
Senator M.E. Vibert (The Minister for Education, Sport and Culture): No, Sir.
- Deputy K.C. Lewis :
Supplementary, Sir? As the Island Games involve many thousands of competitors and supporters, will the Minister be seeking to redevelop and modernise Fort Regent as a place of sporting excellence, and as swimming features quite heavily as it does in Greece at the moment, where will he be seeking to hold the swimming events?
Senator M.E. Vibert :
As regards the swimming events, Les Quennevais swimming pool has proved to be an excellent venue for swimming galas, and would provide an excellent facility for any swimming events in an Island Games. If we were successful in bidding for an Island Games, we would look at all the facilities we required, including Fort Regent's, and see what, if any, improvements need to be made to them.
- Senator J.L. Perchard:
I am motivated to ask about the swimming pool at Fort Regent, Sir. Being that the Minister sees no likelihood of recommissioning it by 2015, or for 2015, should the Island be successful in acquiring the Island Games, what does he see as the future for the Fort Regent swimming pool?
Senator M.E. Vibert :
The Fort Regent swimming pool and the area around there is currently the subject of an EDAW study, and I am awaiting their views on it. A number of suggestions have been made in the past. It is difficult to pre-empt the EDAW study but, certainly, it is well timed that a decision was made on the future of the building that housed the now well passed sell-by date and unusable swimming pool, and that although I think something should go there, I hope it is going to be - and I am sure the Planning Minister will insist - somewhat more aesthetically pleasing than the current building.
- Deputy S.C. Ferguson of St. Brelade :
The Minister says that he hopes to bid for the 2015 Island Games, where does he expect to find the funds for this?
Senator M.E. Vibert :
I expect the States to be wholeheartedly behind hosting such a prestigious event in showing that we are committed to the Island Games. We have over 120 competitors currently competing in Rhodes. I believe the Island Games is one of our premier sporting events, and something the Island should be very proud of. We hosted it very successfully in 1997, and it did the Island a power of good. I would be hoping and wishing and believing the States would get behind any bid for the Island Games in 2015 if it succeeds.
- The Connétable of St. Helier :
I note the Minister's comments about the alternative facilities to Fort Regent pool present in the west of the Island. He was silent about the adequacy of the facilities which replaced Fort Regent, that being the leisure pool. Would the Minister, with the benefit of hindsight, give us his views on the adequacy of the leisure pool, and whether the financial package stacked up as well as it was supposed to?
Senator M.E. Vibert :
The Minister brought a proposition to this House about the future of Fort Regent some 9 years ago now, which included a swimming pool in Fort Regent. The House, while supportive, refused to give funds for that redevelopment. Therefore, alternatives by the then Committee, which I was not
President of, had to be found and the States decided to develop the Waterfront pool, with a competition pool in. The pool is performing well. It was always understood that there would be difficulties with the pool making its own way and paying for itself. No public swimming pool, to my knowledge, operates without a subsidy. The question is the level of the subsidy. I believe the
management at the Waterfront swimming pool are working very hard, because it is in their interest
to ensure it is used as much as possible. Of course it has strictures placed on it by the States such as restricting the letting of it for private parties so that the Constable, and others, can use the pool when they wish. This, of course, will adversely affect their income, but they are working hard on it. Unfortunately, a public pool will have to have a subsidy and it is a question of how much that subsidy is. It has been more than was envisaged in the arrangements that were agreed by the States at the time, but the Committee I was a member of - the Sport, Leisure and Recreation Committee - did issue warnings about the level of subsidy.