JUST how far does £10 million of taxpayers’ money go? It’s not an academic question, for it has fast become an in-vogue figure – £10m to support Jersey Heritage, as proposed by the former Bailiff, £10m for the Town Park, as demanded by Deputy Southern.

Said quickly, it trips off the tongue as if it were just so much loose change, but there’s no denying that it really is a huge sum.

Don’t be deceived by comparing it with what was achieved for £4m in the departures hall of Jersey Airport. At today’s prices it would pay for ten Bel Royal road improvement schemes, wipe out the euro currency loss on the incinerator project, underwrite the trial of a super-rich imported drugs baron and his cronies, or give you just short of two years in the broadcast company of Jonathan Ross.

Money for Jersey Heritage does have the ring of cash well spent, as long as it’s used to make the Island’s true heritage accessible to the general public and provide future generations with the cultural backbone to respect their traditions and enrich their contemporary lifestyle. However, at a time of financial stringency, there would be no place for whimsical window-dressing such as the bizarrely named National Gallery.

The Town Park will have to justify itself – let alone its equally inappropriate ‘Millennium’ title, given that it has already missed the century deadline. We have lived without it for so long that it’s difficult to see where the renewed impetus is really coming from, particularly when – and I’m happy to stand corrected – pushing ahead at this very moment could conflict with the strategic plan for the encompassing area.

Without its potential lure of convenient underground parking, there is little to draw the public to it. And while it does promise some virtue in relieving an acknowledged run-down environment, you won’t be walking through it to get to town, as is the case with Howard Davis Park or the Parade.

Central Park it definitely won’t be, though if it’s not to be surrounded by high-rise housing development which could obscure its lawns and leafy bowers from the sunshine, maybe parts could be turned into allotments, assuming the soil is passed fit, for local residents. That way, at least there would be some payback for the lost revenue from the car park.

It should also definitely be used as an opportunity to display some public art. A generous percentage of the allocated £10m would certainly represent a decent gesture to the local artistic community. Who could resist a centre-piece statue or water feature in the image of a revolving ring-binder to pay homage to its benefactor and provide a sparkling focus for happy children’s laughter?

The park may now be a done deal, but it has already led to warnings from the Treasury Minister that other projects will be axed or delayed in order to fund it. In the end it could represent a Pyrrhic victory. Of course I am fully aware that this is capital rather than revenue, but it all comes out of the same pot in the end. So it’s worth asking how this sort of spending rates alongside other options it displaces – how many MRI machines, extra nurses or care workers to cope with the needs of the sick, older, or less well-off in our community?

So back to the context. Against an overall projected spending target of £754 million in next year’s Business Plan, ten million pounds here or there may seem a drop in the water, but there are many competing calls on that precious resource, each considered essential by their sponsors, and likely to be argued with equal vigour.

Ultimately, we have to accept that there’s a finite level of funding that flows through the public coffers. Short-term borrowing to make it appear that there is more in the kitty to distribute is extremely risky – look at the levels of hock the UK now faces. It will blight the books for generations.

So priorities have to be decided and choices which may be politically unpalatable and publicly disappointing have to be made. It all comes down to who’s prepared to display the courage to grasp the nettle.

Certainly the example from across the water is not encouraging. Despite robust assurances by politicians and regulators, the ‘funny figures’ are starting to tumble again on the City bonus gaming machines. A ‘restrained’ six billion this year – that’s only two billion more than last – how did they survive? And it’s your money, folks.

After benefiting from the staggering £1.3 trillion government bail-out of an economic system on the brink of collapse, the Royal Bank of Scotland, now 70 per cent in public hands, is reportedly planning to reward some of its high-flying employees, who apparently take precedence over its UK tax-paying shareholders, with a cool £500,000 package each. For those in charge of the public purse, such profligacy shoots a torpedo across the bows of prudence.

While it may make the general freeze on public-sector pay appear somewhat anaemic, it certainly underlines the onus on whoever siphons any funds from the depleted public reservoir to justify their take with the confidence of a Solomon. Think twice; invest local.

Meanwhile, spare a thought for our local captains of commerce doing their bit for the Island’s economy. After a hard day’s bargaining in the City, they bounce across the Channel on a dark, rainswept autumn night, the pilot of the late Gatwick flight gallantly smoothing the way by avoiding the clouds and turbulence, and once on the ground, they get drenched at Jersey Airport negotiating the slippery step-way and the gallop for the terminal building.

Who would not trade a weatherproof air bridge – or three – for a walk in the park?