CONCERNS surrounding the government’s arrangement with the private company operating the AquaSplash pool surfaced during a scrutiny hearing yesterday – in which the Infrastructure Minister said “we could do it cheaper ourselves”.
Constable Andy Jehan stressed that the view was his “personal opinion”.
It recently emerged that the government was developing an “action plan” aimed at reducing the pool’s operating deficit, which this year is expected to be £750,000.
Some politicians have raised questions over a contractual obligation for losses incurred by operating company Serco to be met with taxpayers’ money.
Figures published following queries from the JEP showed that Serco was paid £5.6m between 2010 and 2021, an average of £467,000 per year.
A grant of £750,000 was paid in 2023, rising to £1.1m last year, with a projected £1.2m grant for 2025.
Mr Jehan acknowledged the “widely publicised” matter during a hearing of the Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel yesterday morning.
He explained that he was due to be presented with a paper containing “suggestions” regarding the AquaSplash, but added that “quite frankly I think we could do it cheaper ourselves”.
Ellen Littlechild, group director for operations, transport and sport, cited increased staff costs as well as a rise in utility and chemical costs as some of the reasons for the growth in AquaSplash funding.
Later in the hearing, panel member Deputy David Warr sought further detail from the Minister around his “observation earlier that maybe the States should run this pool as opposed to a private organisation”.
Mr Jehan replied: “I’d better clarify – that’s a personal opinion. I’ve not had a paper that tells me one way or the other.
“But my personal view is, if you’re running three swimming pools on the Island, It’d be more efficient if you run four than somebody trying to run one. That’s just a basic business observation.”
He made the comments after highlighting the “massive” funding challenge facing his department.
The minister said Jersey is currently only investing around half of what industry standards state it should do into its infrastructure.
“We’re seeing increases which are out of our control,” said Mr Jehan.
“We’ve got a £300,000 shortfall, for example, on rates. We pay rates, but we’re not actually given sufficient money by the Treasury to pay the rates that we get charged.
“We’ve got challenges with waste, in terms of exporting waste, so that could be as much as £300,000, with changes from our shipping partners. So the team are working on that and probably going to go out to tender again to look to see if we can get something more efficient in that area.”
Other areas of concern included a “downturn” in income from aggregates and green waste.
“We have got challenges, we are considering how we manage those [challenges] and that may mean us reducing the scope or delaying some works,” the minister said.
