A PLANNED debate on the future of the Havre des Pas Lido will not take place this week, after States Members emphatically rejected a Deputy’s plea to reduce the minimum lodging period to allow the vote to go ahead.
Deputy David Warr has lodged a proposition which, if approved, would require ministers to interrupt the tender process, offer a lease to Love Our Lido and promise to give them £170,000 a year for the site’s maintenance.
He had wanted the debate to take place this week. However, in order to so, the St Helier Deputy needed to ask the Assembly to accept a reduced lodging period.
During a short procedural debate, Deputy Warr argued that events were moving fast, with a protest meeting planned for the Royal Square on Wednesday and a vociferous public meeting held at the Lido last week.
A delay would “deflate the momentum” behind the campaign and it would be “absolutely wrong to delay further”, he added.
Infrastructure Minister Andy Jehan said that he did not support the move to hold the debate this week, having changed his mind as a result of concerns raised during a “constructive” meeting with the Love Our Lido group on Monday.
“Although I don’t think their concerns are valid, I take them seriously and out of respect I would rather look at the concerns and respond prior to the debate,” he said.
If the debate did go ahead this week and Members supported Deputy Warr, the minister said this would be “a complete subversion of due process” and open up the government to challenges.
Members voted by 33-12 against allowing the debate to take place this week, with the matter now set to be on the order paper for the sitting beginning on Tuesday 25 November.
The controversy over the future of the Lido has flared after commercial operator First Point was selected to manage the site, which includes pools, steps to the pool, a sundeck, a café, showers, toilets and changing rooms.
Community group Love Our Lido had initially been given preferred bidder status but subsequently had this revoked after negotiations with the government collapsed.
And, in a further development yesterday, charity commissioner John Mills has denied the government’s claims that Love Our Lido’s status could have been a problem.
In their response to Deputy Warr’s proposition, the Council of Ministers said a “key reason” for removing their preferred applicant status, saying: “Ministers are not opposed in principle to the site being led and managed by a charity, but the reality is that ‘Love Our Lido’ is not a charity.”
Responding to their claim, Mr Mills said the only obstacle between Love Our Lido and charity status was agreeing to terms of a lease with the Government of Jersey.
In a statement, made to prevent “misunderstanding or misrepresentation”, he said: “I wish to place on record that there was no regulatory impediment to the charity being formed.
“The necessary arrangements for registration had been agreed with Love Our Lido. The only obstacle arose from concerns expressed by the prospective charity governors regarding the terms of the proposed agreement with the Government of Jersey.”
He added that the governors were “duty-bound” to make sure their charity had secure finances, including how much public funding they would get and what costs and obligations they would face. This position hasn’t changed.”
A protest against the government’s decision to appoint First Point was due to take place during the States lunch break today.
