ESC given two years to form a sports strategy

It followed an amendment to the Policy and Resource Plan laid by committee president Paul Le Pelley and seconded by Deputy Neil Inder, calling for this requirement to be added to one of the existing propositions.

Deputy Le Pelley introduced the amendment with an apology. He said that a similar amendment had been passed by the House in 2015, calling on the then Culture and Leisure Department to bring back a report on a sports strategy this year.

'We have found it very very difficult to hit that timeline,' he said, and as a result the amendment called for the committee to return with a strategy to the Assembly by July 2019.

Deputy Le Pelley also took the opportunity to congratulate Guernsey's sporting men and women currently at the Island Games in Gotland on their success.

The only strong criticism of the amendment came from Deputy Lester Queripel, who wondered what the strategy would achieve.

He listed many successes by island sportsmen and women, including his own son, which were achieved without a strategy.

He also wondered where the money and staff resource would come from to progress it. 'Shouldn't that time and money be spent on strategies we already have in place?'

He suggested that the money would be better spent on helping existing sports clubs, or couples with children who could not afford to send all their children to all of the sports clubs which they wished to attend.