Strive has failed to communicate to the government how many schools and community groups have benefitted from its free hours since the sports facility opened in 2021, it has emerged.
The Jersey Sports Academy – which operates as Strive – committed to providing 4,044 free hours of use to local schools and community groups each year under the Community Use Monitoring Programme.
Alongside the agreement, the St Peter-based business is also required to conduct a review of the Service Level Agreement at “a minimum once per fiscal year”.
But asked for an update on take-up levels by Deputy Jonathan Renouf this week, Economic Development Minister Kirsten Morel admitted that he had not received formal reports from Strive since it opened in 2021.
He also confirmed that no review has been undertaken by his department in the past four years. Instead, Deputy Morel said that “ad-hoc updates” are provided “as required”.
He said that Strive “maintains an ongoing relationship” with the government’s arms-length active organisation Jersey Sport and local schools.
The Economic Development Minister added that, despite the lack of annual reports, “the required hours for schools and community use have been offered”.
School use of the performance centre is free of charge, and the wider community pays to use the space but at a discounted rate.
Deputy Morel outlined that in the last 12 months, just over 3,500 hours had been used as part of the programme – around 85% of the available provision of 4,044 hours.
But in a post on social media, Deputy Renouf asked: “What is the point of Planning Obligation Agreements if they are going to be ignored?”