Mont Orgueil Castle: First Gate: Emergency Repairs: Central Contingency Funding

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A decision made 18 June 2014:

Decision reference: MD-TR-2014-0053
Decision Summary Title:	Central Contingency funding for financial Support for Mont Orgueil Castle repairs		Date of Decision Summary:	12 June 2014
Decision Summary Author:	Head of Decision Support		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt?		Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	Written		Person Giving Oral Report:		N/A
Written Report Title:	Central Contingency funding for financial Support for Mont Orgueil Castle repairs		Date of Written Report:		12 June 2014
Written Report Author:	Business Manager		Written Report : Public or Exempt?		Public
Subject: Contingency funding allocation from Central Contingency (One-Off) to the Education, Sport and Culture (ESC) for a grant to Jersey Heritage Trust (JHT) in order to meet the costs of emergency repairs to the first gate at Mont Orgueil Castle.
Decision(s): The Minister approved additional monies of £325,628.59 be made available from Central Contingency (one off) to JHT via ESC to fund the emergency repairs and stabilisation of Mont Orgueil Castle first gate.
Reason(s) for Decision: Article 17(2) of the Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2005 states that the Minister for Treasury and Resources (T&R) is authorised to approve the transfer from contingency expenditure to heads of expenditure of amounts not exceeding, in total, the amount available for contingency expenditure in a financial year. The Council of Ministers agreed this proposal at their meeting of 7 May 2014.
Resource Implications: The ESC revenue head of expenditure will increase by £325,628.59 in 2014 with Central Contingency (one-off) decreasing by an identical amount. This decision does not change the total amount of expenditure approved by the States.
Action required: Business Manager to inform the Head of Financial Planning, the Financial Performance Reporting Manager that this decision has been approved.
Signature:		Position: Senator P F C Ozouf, Minister for Treasury and Resources
Date Signed:		Date of Decision:

Mont Orgueil Castle: First Gate: Emergency Repairs: Central Contingency Funding

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Treasury & Resourses

Ministerial Decision Report

Central Contingency Funding for Mont Orgueil repairs

Purpose of Report

The purpose of this report is to enable the Minister to enact the decision of the Council of Ministers for funding from the Central Contingency (one off) to Education, Sport and Culture (ESC) for a grant to Jersey Heritage Trust (JHT) in order to meet the costs of emergency repairs to the first gate at Mont Orgueil Castle.

Background

Elizabeth Castle and Mont Orgueil Castle belong to the States of Jersey. On the 10th December 1996 the States approved P218/1996 (Cession of Usufruct), which transferred the castles to JHT and stipulated that they be run as historic attractions. Funds generated from ticket income would contribute to the running and maintenance costs.

Under the Usufruct agreement (Appendix A) signed the maintenance of the Castles is undertaken from the Ancient Monuments Fund (AMF), which is fed by 17% of ticket sales from the two castles. P218/1996 obliged JHT to undertake normal repairs to the castles and, in addition, to retain a reserve of £100,000 for unforeseen repairs which can only be used with the consent of the Minister for Education, Sport and Culture (ESC).

The agreement also states that in the event of repairs too costly to be undertaken from the AMF, JHT may apply to the States for additional assistance, through clause 4.9, which states:

“In the event of repairs whether urgent or otherwise being required to the Castles or to either of them which will exceed in cost the whole of the Fund the Trust may apply to Finance and Economics [now Treasury and Resources] for additional funding”.

Specialist inspections commissioned during the course of 2013 revealed deterioration of the first gate at Mont Orgueil Castle and in July 2013 JHT introduced temporary boarding around the arch of the gate to protect against possible falling masonry.

Remedial works to underpin the gate and repair integral masonry and the surrounding structure is now urgently required. Antony Gibb states in a letter of 18 December 2013 to JHT:

“Both the monitoring engineers, Arup, and the structural engineers, Hockley & Dawson, recommend that under-pinning and associated masonry repair is required now. Certainly the shoring in place under the First Gate arch cannot remain in the long term and would ideally be removed before the castle re-opens next year.”

Current request

JHT have advised that there is insufficient funding within the AMF to support the remedial works required and they do not have the budgetary allowance for maintenance of this magnitude. The balance of the main fund (excluding the reserve) is being applied in its entirety to an urgent repair at Elizabeth Castle. The effective balance on the reserve fund taking into account ongoing maintenance is currently calculated to be £80,000. JHT have applied to the Minster for ESC to use these monies for the repair work but this leaves an unfunded balance of £325,628.59.

As the parent department ESC have also confirmed that they do not have provision for this in their own cash limit and a request under clause 4.9 is therefore being submitted for the sum of £325,628.59 to be made available from Central Contingency (one off).

Jersey Property Holdings (JPH) and ESC explored possible funding sources from the 2013 departmental underspends. However these underspends had already been allocated to fund other spending pressures. Underspends in capital were also explored by Treasury and Resources with no success.

4. Recommendation

The Minister is recommended to approve that additional monies of £325,628.59 be made available from Central Contingency (one off) to JHT via ESC to fund the emergency repairs and stabilisation of Mont Orgueil Castle first gate.

6. Reason for Decision

Article 17(2) of the Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2005 states that the Minister for Treasury and Resources (T&R) is authorised to approve the transfer from contingency expenditure to heads of expenditure of amounts not exceeding, in total, the amount available for contingency expenditure in a financial year.

7. Resource Implications

The ESC revenue head of expenditure will increase by £325,628.59 in 2014 with Central Contingency (one-off) decreasing by an identical amount. This decision does not change the total amount of expenditure approved by the States.

Report author : Business Manager	Document date : 14 May 2014
Quality Assurance / Review : Head of Decision Support	File name and path: L:\Treasury\Sections\Corporate Finance\Ministerial Decisions\DSs, WRs and SDs\2014-0036 - Central Contingency financial Support for cattle exports\WR - Central Contingency financial Support for cattle exports.docx
MD sponsor : Treasurer of the States