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Use of unspent funds from Town Park Capital vote

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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT AND TECHNICAL SERVICES BY CONNÉTABLE OF ST. HELIER

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 15th JULY 2013

Question

Despite the fact that the States Budget Management Report for the period ended December 2012 (page 6) states that half a million pounds of unspent funds from the Town Park Capital vote is to be returned to the rolling votes of Transport and Technical Services and Housing, would the Minister confirm whether this sum was identified for another project which was never undertaken and, if so, would the Minister explain what this 'other project' was, when it was agreed and by whom, why it was not undertaken and when that decision was made, and why the extra funding was included in the vote for the Millennium Town Park if it was never intended to be spent on that project?

Would the Minister provide a breakdown of how the £10 million sum allocated by the States was spent and what became of the earlier sums allocated to the Millennium Town Park project?

Answer

The  half  a  million  pounds  relates  to  a  proposal  by  the  Council  of  Ministers  in  2007  for landscaping improvements to Victoria Avenue unrelated to the Town Park. This was proposed to be funded from the TTS Infrastructure and Housing Rolling Votes (£250k each). To allow the landscaping project to be explored more fully, however, a temporary transfer of £500k from the Town Park budget was to be made, with this to be reimbursed in later years from the two sources mentioned above.

Following  consideration  of  outline  schemes,  the  landscaping  project  was  not  considered an affordable priority and the scheme did not proceed. However, the reimbursements were still made, meaning the Town Park budget was showing an excess of £500k. As this project did not proceed there was a requirement to return the budgets to the original capital heads of expenditure, namely the TTS Infrastructure and Housing Rolling Votes.

This  was  affected  in  2012.  These  accounting  adjustments  had  no  effect  upon  the  funding approved for, and spent on, the Town Park and no variations have been made to capital funding approved by the States.

A breakdown of the £10m allocated by the States was spent is listed below. All earlier sums allocated to the Millennium Town Park Project were spent on the early concept, feasibility and initial design work.

Millennium Town Park - Cost Breakdown Summary

Item  Cost (£1000's)

1 Preparation, Planning and Enabling  £2,400 2 Contaminated Land Remediation  £2,640 3 Utility Building  £768

4 Services and Systems  £1,050 5 Paving  £1,200 6 Planting  £996 7 Play area  £228 8 Practice Court and Petanque  £120 9 Park Furniture and Pergolas  £280 10 Water Curtain  £90 11 Water Field  £156 12 Public Art  £72

Total Cost  £10,000