Jamboree relocation cost could affect UK Scouts for years, warns chief executive

UK Scouts will face an impact on its activities for up to five years after spending £1 million evacuating youngsters from the world jamboree in South Korea amid a heatwave, the organisation’s chief executive has suggested.

Matt Hyde said the money used to move 4,500 Scouts and adult volunteers into hotels in the country’s capital Seoul was taken from its “reserves”.

UK Scouts had become increasingly concerned about the sanitation of the toilets at the jamboree site, as well as the availability of food, medical services and the “punishing heat”.

Temperatures rose to 35C at the World Scout Jamboree campsite near the south-western town of Buan, where more than 40,000 Scouts from around the world gathered for the 12-day event.

South Korean officials have now ordered an early departure of all participants as a typhoon threatens to sweep across the area.

The UK Scouts “jamboree journey” will now continue in Seoul and a programme of activities including trekking, bus tours and cultural exchanges has been organised with help from the British Embassy, Mr Hyde said.

The chief executive said he feels “let down” by the jamboree’s South Korean organisers.

He told the BBC: “We had commitments to those reserves that will of course mean that we can’t now do things that we wanted to do over the next three to five years.

“We feel let down by the organisers because we repeatedly raised some of these concerns before we went, and during, and we were promised things were going to be put in place and they weren’t.”

In a statement issued on Monday morning, Mr Hyde said the UK contingent will travel home from August 13 as originally planned.

“We’ve just relocated 4,500 young people and adult volunteers away from the jamboree site to here in Seoul,” he said.

“They’re all in hotel rooms. We were concerned about young people and adult volunteer safety.

“We were particularly concerned about sanitation and cleanliness of the toilets.

“We were worried about food.

“We were concerned about the heat – it’s punishingly hot here in Korea. We were concerned about the heat relief measures that have been put in place.

“We were also concerned about medical services.

“We’re disappointed in the organisers and the organisation. We do feel let down.

“I am truly inspired by the response of our adult volunteers and our young people.”

Scouts from 158 countries were attending the jamboree, which is hosted by a different nation every four years.