ESC president stands by move to put Active8 funding at risk
EDUCATION must look at every pound it spends, its president has said, as she stands by a move to reduce the current funding of the Activ8 sports strategy.
The Guernsey Sports Commission had been receiving £250,000 a year to deliver a large part of the strategy.
Under a new funding agreement, ESC intends to cut this to £124,000 next year and £82,000 from 2025.
The reductions are contained in Government Work Plan savings, set to be discussed in the States today.
Education, Sport & Culture president Andrea Dudley-Owen said it was easy to oversimplify the idea of funding cuts in the wake of the Games, and to overstate the role of public funding in the pursuit of Island Games medals.
‘In the absence of a States’ decision on how to resolve the forecast annual deficit position of up to £100m. within 20 years, we need to be even more focused that every pound we spend is getting maximum impact for the purpose it is invested,’ she said.
‘We want to see sport funded to the maximum amount possible, within the funds the States is able and willing to allocate from the dwindling pot available.’
She said that the Activ8 sports strategy was only one factor in Guernsey’s sporting success, and although there are plans to provide sporting facilities as part of the Les Ozouets Campus development, the States also had competing calls for funding.
‘There are no easy answers, but calling upon States Members to resolve our worsening financial situation will help immeasurably to ensure that we can continue to support all areas within our mandate.’
Deputy Dudley-Owen said the previous committee had secured funding for the sports strategy for just three years.
‘This money will soon run out and the committee must do something,’ she said.
‘If we took no action then the funding previously secured for only three years would simply stop.
'Our committee does not want that so is asking the States to provide new funding for Active 8.’
She added that negotiations with the Sports Commission were ongoing and the GWP figures may not be the final figure for the strategy.
The committee provides a grant of more than £520,000 a year to the commission from its budget, including nearly £250,000 to deliver sport in schools.
