Combination of factors to blame for Heritage crisis
Thursday 5th November 2009, 2:56PM GMT.
Heritage director Jon Carter pictured at Mont Orgueil
JERSEY Heritage has been plunged into crisis by falling visitor numbers, poor commercial management, a failure to tackle the decline and its dysfunctional relationship with the Education Department, a report has revealed.
Earlier this year, the organisation warned that it could be forced to close the Maritime Museum, the Occupation Tapestry Gallery and Hamptonne and make staff redundant unless it received urgent funding from the States. It warned that it would need £1 million just to keep all its existing sites open and continue to provide its current level of service.
Today, a report by Chris Swinson, the Comptroller and Auditor General, has revealed that several factors have combined to create serious short- and long-term problems for Heritage. And he warned that the £2 million annual grant Heritage receives from the States falls short of what is needed to allow it to sustain its existing service.
Heritage director Jon Carter said that much of the report reinforced what the organisation has previously said about its finances. He said: ‘It is a helpful report which confirms what we have been saying – that the current grant level is not sufficient to sustain the existing activities and that investment in the sites is needed in the short term.’
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i hope the states now realise that the heritage trust needs help.as a visitor of 22years 6wks a year,jersey cannot afford to lose these beautiful and educational places of interest.i have just got back from 3wks.my family enjoyed our weekend at the cider festival.i helped out both days and our holiday would not be the same without our trips to hamptonne and cider weekend.there is little to do now for the tourist without closing more sites down.this is your heritage,you should be proud of it.my children learnt the history of jersey by visiting all the museaums.children in england are not taught about the islands being occupied during the war.my son embarressed his history teacher when she said no part of the british islands was ever occupied,when he told her they were.save these places befor its too late
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Heritage and the Arts have been poor relations to Sport in Jersey for decades. New stadium? Springfield built with States’ money. Opera House has to take out extortionate loan, Arts Centre has to have emergency funding to replace 20+ year old air conditioning. St. James clothed in scaffolding for years because States won’t pay for repairs.
Businesses & householders STOP SPENDING on new things when times are tough but ALWAYS protect their bedrock: property and history. Instead of buying new sculptures, granite signs and land that needs to be maintained, let’s look after what we’ve got in the tough times – once it’s gone, it’s gone.
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Jersey and its inhabitants must learn to “cut their coats according to the cloth”.
Day after day, week after week, we have read in the pages of this paper how the States is perilously short of cash.
Indeed, in another story in today’s issue, we are told that things are so tough that Jersey Water is being forced to fire 20 employees to give its major shareholder – the States of Jersey – “a better return”. If this is indeed the case, then no wonder that there is no money available for Jersey Heritage.
Heritage will just have to make retrenchments. Its assets will not go away, and they do not have to be sold.
After all, inward tourism to Jersey has all but disappeared, thanks to the government’s continuing obsession with the finance industry.
What can be done is to “mothball” some sites until better times prevail. This will be a tough step to take, one that “joy”, quoted above will not like.
Nevertheless, – for the foreseeable future – the body corporate that is the Bailiwick of Jersey must give first priority to the welfare of its current inhabitants, rather than selling its past.
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This is a cause for (former) Senator Stuart Syvret to champion.
After all, he does have a prior history of tilting at windmills!
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At the time of writing the BBC news website’s Jersey page is running two conflicting stories.
The lead goes to the £190,000 deficit posted by Jersey Heritage.
Immediately beneath that is a tale of how Jersey War Tunnels is to spend a quarter of a million pounds on mounting a special exhibition to mark the 65th anniversary of Jersey’s liberation.
“So what?”
If a privately owned heritage site can afford to shell out such a sum this must have come from the company’s profits. The company itself is clearly well managed.
Compare and contrast this with the Jersey Heritage Trust, funded with and bailed out by Jersey taxpayers’ money. This sorry excuse for a state-run enterprise could learn much from the private sector!
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oh joy………..this will become another states department to lose money and nobody will get the blame
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A number of expensive blunders and bad decisions by the trustees have led to this disgraceful financial blunder that they expect the already struggling worker to support.
The list of over spends:
Mont Orgeuil – poor management
1204 Pageant – ditto
Dukws – ditto
Holiday lets – ditto
Display and management of collection – ditto.
All this and 0000′s of pounds spent on lavish promotional exercises.
The trustees should have acted accordingly cut staff and costs to suit their budget instead they employ more public relations staff.
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