Fort Regent To Close As Sports Venue?

An independent report has recommended that Fort Regent be closed as a sports and events venue.

It's one of a series of suggestions in the report, commissioned by the government to assess the future of Jersey's sports facilities.

Seven strategic recommendations were made, including:

• Considering closing Fort Regent as a sports and events venue and investigating how else the site could be used;
• Considering the development of a new sports and events centre in St Helier to replace and improve upon the facilities currently offered at Fort Regent and Aquasplash;
• Assessing the feasibility of investing into Les Quennevais Sports Centre;
• Considering the creation of an island stadium for football and rugby;
• Investigating the possibility of developing a sports facility in the east of the island; and
• Considering the feasibility of creating a seafront watersports facility.

The report was delivered by specialist consultancy firm Knight, Kavanagh and Page Ltd. at a cost of just over £48,500.

It called the general sporting offer at Fort Regent 'not fit for purpose' - and not a 'viable, medium or long-term option for Jersey'.

The Assistant Minister responsible for Sport, Senator Steve Pallett, says nothing will change in the short-term.

"Fort Regent is not going to close overnight. I just want to make that clear for people, it's business as usual for the time being.

"I think everybody understands that there's a need to do something with Fort Regent, whether it's a refurbishment or a regeneration or whatever we're going to do with it."

A new political oversight group has been created to develop a new sports facilities strategy and consider the recommendations.

"I think making sure that we have a clear understanding of what sports facilities we'll need over the next 15-20 years will be really important."

"We've already kick-started that work, what we need to work on now is some more detail as to where the facilities will go and the potential cost." - Senator Pallett.