This Is Guernsey

By Natalie Harrison

CULTURE and Leisure will consider allowing Guernsey Live to be held at Victoria Avenue - but only if no other suitable venue is found. Chief officer Dave Chilton said yesterday that while the board had yet to be convinced that all other options had been properly discounted, if Victoria Avenue was the last remaining venue, members would weigh up the pros and cons of holding the event on the site in the knowledge agreement had come from all parties.

Guernsey Cricket Association chairman Mark Latter has indicated that it would not object to the event being held there in May.

Mr Chilton said that the board had agreed that organisers could use the ground as an overflow area if a festival site had been staged at the Track.

‘When the organisers’ plans recently changed at short notice from using the Track, which apparently could not accommodate the number envisaged, to Victoria Avenue, there were serious concerns about damage to the area which were forwarded to them,’ he said.

‘Cricket would seem to endorse that concern.’

Mr Latter said in a letter to the Guernsey Press that the GCA appreciated the department would have been ‘naturally keen to protect the sports ground from any damage caused by trucks or from broken glass if the event was staged there, as such any damage would have impacted on both cricket and football, perhaps for a long period thereafter’.

Yesterday he said that the sport would be satisfied if at least the wicket area was protected during the event, which festival organiser Warren Holt said it would be able to do.

Mr Chilton said that the board had become aware of proposed change of venue on 1 February.

However, Mr Holt had said earlier that a department representative had asked him about placing a deposit to secure the area in case of damage to the site.

It wrote to organisers that day expressing concerns over the late notification of the change and its possible effect upon the surface, arrangements for reinstatement, costs, insurance and other areas.

‘We were not provided with any proof that permissions had been granted for the change of site from Environment or the police - something we are still waiting for,’ said Mr Chilton.

He said that having agreed to the use of the grass areas of the sports field as an overflow site and for parking on the hard areas only, the department had still not received any detailed information on the requested uses.

Last night, Mr Holt said that the festival organisers were in talks about the event and hoped to reach a resolution soon.

* The department’s latest softer approach in a statement to the Guernsey Press contrasted with minister Peter Sirett’s views on radio today, where he remained opposed to the event being held at Victoria Avenue in any circumstances because of the department’s desire to protect its sports fields.