CULTURE AND LEISURE wants to take on more responsibility, not be scrapped, its minister has said.

And the department will not let Beau Sejour be privatised, as Chief Minister Lyndon Trott suggested at the May States meeting.

Mike O’Hara (pictured) yesterday responded to comments made by Deputy Sam Maindonald on the BBC radio phone-in. She said that if the States was serious about saving money, then his department might have to be closed.

He called for the opposite to happen.

‘That would definitely not be good – it would really bite at all the social and cultural aspects of the island and I could not sanction such a thing,’ he said. ‘If anything, Culture and Leisure should be taking on other areas of responsibility, for instance parks and gardens could come under our jurisdiction.’

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