EDUCATION, Sport and Culture has defended price rises for use of sports and other facilities that will see the cost of using two rooms at Fort Regent increase by as much as 50 per cent.

However, assurances have been given to sports clubs and other user groups that if the price increases threaten their existence, then agreements can be reached to ease the burden.The issue has arisen as a result of complaints from Roy Travert, who runs a martial arts school at the Fort.

He points out that rooms he uses have increased in price from £10 per hour to £15 per hour.

He also says that anyone who is not based at the Fort but wants to use a room to teach there will now have to pay £20 per hour rather than £10 per hour.Mr Travert has condemned the increases and asks in a letter to the JEP published today ‘how on earth can they justify this?’However, Education, Sport and Culture’s head of operations, David Bisson, responded by saying that a review of charges had concluded that the prices charged for these rooms were unrealistically low compared to charges levied elsewhere in the sport portfolio and in the private sector.’Overall we have been asked to increase charges by six per cent across the board to meet targets laid down under the States fundamental spending review.

In the case of these rooms – and we are only talking about a few – we felt that it was reasonable to increase the charges as we have done,’ he said.