SENATOR Alan Breckon hit the nail squarely on the head when he said that government’s Comprehensive Spending Review cannot be truly comprehensive if the States are paying almost £500,000 a year in subsidy to Serco, the UK company which runs the Waterfront swimming pool.

It seems extraordinary that such a sum is being spent on a facility which, in the opinion of many of its users, is inferior to leisure pools in other resorts and also poorly equipped for serious swimming events. It is even more extraordinary that money can be frittered away so freely when public services as a whole are under the shadow of major cuts.

Moreover, as Senator Breckon has also pointed out, the subsidy figure was lurking coyly in the second appendix of the States Report and Accounts, a document running to 204 pages.

It is not necessarily true that an attempt was made to place the pool information in an obscure place, but many will be tempted to believe that this was the case – especially if they entertain serious doubts about the true extent of ministers’ much-vaunted commitment to open government.

Senator Breckon is quite rightly concerned about the Serco subsidy against the background of public sector finances and economies being made in areas which, he fears, will hit the poorest Islanders hardest. He and others would doubtless also like to know how the subsidy came to be paid in the first place and how it can possibly be justified in commercial terms.

Meanwhile, with other Waterfront attractions boarded up – figuratively, if not literally – because of leasing issues, the pool and its massive subsidy add another lamentable chapter to the sorry saga of what was meant to be the Island’s most prestigious development but which is, in reality, a massive disappointment.

In addition, the latest revelation focuses attention on just how badly the whole issue of swimming pools has been handled over the course of many years. Not only do we have a Waterfront pool of questionable quality, we also have the sad remnant of the Fort Regent pool – which was never an attractive building, even in its heyday – gently decaying on the St Helier skyline.

Neither of these buildings reflects well on the vision or wisdom of those among our political representatives responsible for their creation or present state.