MORE than £100,000 of taxpayers’ money went towards a high-end live-stream and branding for the Royal Visit in July, new figures have revealed.
The Bailiff’s Chambers this week published their breakdown of costs for the visit of King Charles III and Queen Camilla on Monday 15 July, showing that the department racked up a bill of £485,000 – £85,000 over budget.
Almost £115,000 was spent on communications, compared to the planned budget of £100,000 – and a spokesperson for the Bailiff’s Chambers has since confirmed to the JEP that most of that spending was for the high-end production of a live-stream which attracted 43,000 viewers on YouTube.
The spokesperson further added that all third-party contractors and services used in planning and delivery of the event were based in Jersey.
The Bailiff’s Chambers has previously attracted criticism from the Public Accounts Committee when a JEP freedom-of-information request revealed that the department spent £130,000 on Liberation Day celebrations – which included £68,704 for the rental of two seven-metre screens from a non-Jersey provider.
The largest proportion of the £485,000 cost was on contractors, payment for which came in at almost £135,000 compared to a planned budget of £80,000.
According to the Bailiff’s Chambers, this amount covered event and site co-ordination, crowd and safety consultation, site building, and the visit’s first-aid provision.
