Working to get beach back

THE popular Grande Greve beach near La Coupee could be open again soon - thanks to some hard work by volunteers.

The beach - popular with tourist and resident families, as well as visiting boat owners - has been closed for months because of a large landslide and the threat of further slips.

But just a couple of weeks ago, Jeremy La Trobe-Bateman said in a note on shop noticeboards that another possible route for the access path had been identified and called for volunteers to give up a few hours on Saturday afternoon to help clear it. About 20 of them turned up - all with a better head for heights than I have - and set to work with a will.

The new path will be a sort of extension of the start of the existing one at the north end of La Coupee and the volunteers cleared to within about 50ft of the beach, a quite remarkable achievement for one afternoon's hard labour.

I am told that they want to continue tomorrow afternoon and could, of course, do with as many willing hands as possible.

That sort of voluntary effort is very much in keeping with the community spirit that exists in Sark - the sort that makes people from elsewhere realise (sometimes, perhaps, although not always) that not every problem needs to have money thrown at it in order to solve it.

As Jeremy said in his original note, the island's workmen have enough to do already.

Those who have worked on this project will earn the grateful thanks of all those who use Grande Greve beach - families and boat owners.

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I read the other day that royal assent has been given to a backlog of legislation approved by the States of Guernsey and wondered what had become of the amendment to Sark's Reform Law which would allow by-elections in Chief Pleas to take place a good deal more quickly than they are at present. The vacancies caused by the resignation of David Pollard and the death of Stephen Henry within a year of them first being elected to four-year terms of office as conseillers in the inaugural general election in December 2008 have still not been filled.

That has led to the quite ludicrous situation of there having been another general election in December last year but no machinery existing to allow those casual vacancies to be filled at that time.

It would have been simplicity itself to declare 16 vacancies instead of the 14 for those who were elected for two-year terms and decree that the two lowest-placed successful candidates should complete the terms of office of Mr Pollard and the late Dr Henry.

Chief Pleas approved the necessary amendment last year and there can only be three places it can be delayed - here, Guernsey and Whitehall.

I very much doubt that the delay is Sark's fault, I hope it's not Guernsey's and, given its track record, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Whitehall is sitting on it, although quite why is anyone's guess.

In the meantime, the 26 remaining conseillers continue to do the work of 28 and the people of Sark continue to be disenfranchised to the tune of two of their elected representatives.

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Before I close, a word of apology to Hazel Fry for me forgetting to mention last week that the Lenten lunches are being held until Easter at The Vicarage.

* The email address for comment is fallesark@sark.net.