Strive POA and Community Availability
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WQ.405/2025
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT
BY DEPUTY J. RENOUF OF ST. BRELADE
QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 27th OCTOBER 2025 ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 3rd NOVEMBER 2025
Question
"Further to Written Questions 348/2025, 380/2025 and 381/2025 regarding the Planning Obligation Agreement (POA) with the Jersey Sports Academy (Strive), and in relation to the Community Availability table included in the POA, will the Minister advise the total number of hours (or slots) per year, the total number of sessions per year and the total hours per year that have been utilised since 2021?"
Answer
In the SLA, the Community Availability table uses assumptions of fixed class sizes (30 per class) and fixed numbers of community (24)/sports users (24) to derive the Sessions per year' figures.
The Sessions per Year and Total Hours columns within the SLA were therefore indicative of what could be achieved from the hours that the operator makes the facility available (4044 in the SLA as representative of the facility's planned opening hours at the time of the signing of the SLA).
Any variance to current use comes from the fact that usage will be very different to what was envisaged 9 years ago, and a school, for example, may choose to bring far fewer pupils to the Academy than the 30 the table refers to, therefore we believe that the key metric against which the Owner should be measured is the hours made available for any of these groups to book.
For the purpose of responding to the WQ in a constructive manner officers have provided figures (taken from those provided by the Owner) of hours used and the sessions data has been provided to the extent that it is available (individual slots per week X group size X number of weeks - as per the SLA calculation).
Sessions data cannot be provided for all groups mentioned in the SLA, for example, community groups' are privately booking the facility (at a discounted rate) and user numbers per session are not recorded as part of the booking. There was also no requirement for a record of the number of Jersey Reds players who attended in each of their slots and this varied each time.
It is clear that a significant amount has changed since planning approval was given in 2016. A review and refresh of the SLA and its obligations is indeed overdue and would help to ensure that other departments of Government are also aware and make best use of the facility.
It is key that any new agreement reflects the hours available for use and there is a review of the benefit or otherwise of including any fixed usage numbers. There has been investment into both school and other public and private sports facilities since 2021 which has seen demand change in some areas. The key remaining requirement is that the facility remains available to be used, year-round, for free by schools, and at a discounted rate by the community and sports.
Information as provided by the Owner:
2021 2022 2023 2024 Total hours per year: The facility is open for 96 hours per week to be booked by schools, community and sports.
Total (minimum) number of sessions that took place per year 4515 16888 19118 18089 (calculated as per SLA Users x Hours used)
Total (minimum) hours utilised 979 3039 2853* 3173
*Jersey Reds usage ceased mid- year