Easter launch a 100-year-old tradition

SARK youngsters sailed their model boats on the duck pond near Petit Beauregard on Good Friday and so continued a tradition that older residents believe is at least a century old.

There were upwards of a dozen children 'enjoying' the various stages of wetness – they ranged from slightly damp to utterly soaked – when I arrived at kick-off time and this despite a distinct chill in the air.

The craft on display ranged from traditional handmade sailing boats, some of which have been handed down through the generations, to some really up to date radio controlled bits of kit that zoomed about at a tremendous rate of knots.

It was all good fun and, as is customary with most public events in Sark, there was a charity aspect to it with the extended Adams family providing hot drinks in aid of this year's preferred good cause.

One regular attendee is boat builder Laurence Roberts, who over the years has launched craft big and (for use on the duck pond) small and it was he who told me that the Good Friday morning tradition was certainly held when his grandfather was a child.

'The fishermen used to build the models over the winter months and children used to sail them on Good Friday morning. It's certainly been going at least 100 years and perhaps even a bit longer – and let's hope it continues for a long time yet,' said Laurence.

With that in mind I look forward to covering Good Friday duck pond excursions for many more years – notwithstanding freezing hands that can scarcely push a camera button.

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Chief Pleas meets next week for the Easter meeting and with an agenda of no fewer than 28 items set down for debate and well over 200 pages of reports and draft legislation (probably closer to 300 if I bothered to count them) to consider, I suppose there is a slim chance that conseillers may have to adjourn for lunch and return in the afternoon.

How on earth our elected representatives find the time to go through such a huge agenda and give each and every item the full consideration which I believe they should, and all this in three weeks with a four-day holiday weekend right in the middle of it, is totally beyond me.

A couple of items caught my eye and one – albeit indirectly – touches on a cause close to every journalist's heart; that of open government. The Road Traffic Committee is seeking the power to 'regulate tractors, invalid carriages and horse-drawn carriages as they see fit from time to time'.

As I understand from the proposed legislation, the committee wants the power to control the driving, use and parking on public roads of all three modes of transport without, it seems, any reference whatsoever to Chief Pleas or indeed the public.

The government system in Sark is such that, with neither committee agendas nor minutes being open to public scrutiny, everything can operate in total secrecy. This means that those directly affected by these proposed regulations will learn of changes only once they have been agreed and implemented by a handful of our 28 elected representatives.

Secret government, in all but the most exceptional circumstances, is bad government and there should always be a presumption of openness. There is no reason why seasonal changes to traffic measures can't be debated at each Easter meeting.

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