07 November 2016
The Assistant Minister for Economic Development, Tourism, Sport and Culture, Deputy Murray Norton, has made the following statement:
“Following detailed work by officers from Economic Development, Tourism, Sport and Culture, it has been determined that a second ice rink at Fort Regent would run at a considerable cost to the taxpayer and does not represent a prudent use of public funds. As a consequence Ministers have decided that the ice rink at Fort Regent will no longer go ahead.
“The department analysed the actual costs compared to the costs incurred in 2015 by Ice Skate Jersey. These costs were then set against significant reduced income from skaters as a result of the ice rink at the Weighbridge.
“I realise people will be disappointed at this news but I am grateful to EDTSC officials and our partners including Ice Skate Jersey and Sure for their hard work in trying to make this happen, however once we received the actual costs and the cost to the taxpayer became clear, we were left with no option other to make the decision not to proceed.
The Head of Marketing at Sure, Louise Burrows, said “We are hugely disappointed that the decision’s been made not to go ahead after all. We were fully committed to supporting the event but understand the reasons why, sadly, it can’t go ahead.’’
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