Beau Sejour must be open to change

That has eroded over time. Sport and leisure are very different today. ‘Having a drink’ at the bar at Beau Sejour post-match would now seem as outmoded as the gear the players wore back in those days.

Running the centre has long been a doomed battle to stay out of the red, and every now and then, in the face of strident opposition, the States decides to take a look at an alternative model for fixing that.

It has proved a difficult issue to fix and the latest review from Education, Sport & Culture will almost certainly come to the same conclusion.

Can anyone operate a centre that is supposed to be all things to all people, but is increasingly becoming few things to few people, for 17 hours a day, keep everyone satisfied, and at least break even?

The review of a previous bid to make savings at Beau Sejour, carried out by the then Public Accounts Committee in 2015, affirmed the decision not to outsource but also outlined a rather bloody internal scrap, as ‘vigorous challenge’ was applied to the ‘robustly defended’ management model.

A review of the status of Beau Sejour is appropriate in the current financial climate. But this feels rather like the ‘what do we do with Aurigny’ dilemma, which has dogged the States for years. There is no real right or wrong answer to this stickiest of problems.

But what won’t wash is a review largely dictated by the view that things can’t change – even if, ultimately, they don’t.