Guernsey Press

Deputies call for Culture and Leisure to get the axe

CULTURE and Leisure should be axed, deputies have said.

Published

After newly-installed chief minister Jonathan Le Tocq revealed his belief that the number of States members and departments should be cut, deputies rounded on the smallest department in the States.

'Culture and Leisure could be put into Education as part of its mandate,' said Deputy Barry Brehaut – who also believed the Housing Department could be done away with.

Commerce and Employment minister Kevin Stewart thought his department was already doing a sizeable chunk of Culture and Leisure's work. If any department had to be axed, he said, no other should come first.

'It is the obvious one to go. We do tourism and have the marketing expertise so we could easily absorb it.'

Treasury and Resources deputy minister Jan Kuttelwascher suggested the States could slim down from its current 10 departments to six.

'If you take Culture and Leisure, that could come under the Education Department and then you wouldn't need some of the bureaucracy that goes with it.'

Culture and Leisure employs roughly 100 people and has an annual budget of over £3m.

But minister Mike O'Hara, pictured, vigorously defended its existence, saying it had an important role to play – one of which is enshrined in law.

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