Royal landing pad or racecourse?

THE Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall are to visit Sark on Thursday 19 July as part of their tour of the Channel Islands to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

The announcement came from Government House, but no further details of either the time of the visit or its duration or indeed their royal highnesses' mode of transport for getting to and from the island are available.

I refer to their mode of transport simply because there is already some conjecture about it, as the visit comes the day before Sark's busiest weekend – the annual sheep racing meeting – and the Millennium Field may well be unsuitable for helicopters.

Still, as one Sarkee remarked to me when discussing this minor local difficulty, there is apparently a grassed-over area not far from La Moinerie which could possibly be converted to a helicopter landing pad if push comes to shove.

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Meanwhile, life in Sark trundles on with scarcely a ripple, probably because most residents have spent the last few days trying to digest Belinda Crowe's lengthy tome on administrative and executive support for the government of Sark, a copy of which was delivered to each household earlier this week.

The report's contents have already been fully covered in the Guernsey Press so I won't go into detail but the word on the street (The Avenue, to be more precise, for there are no streets in Sark) is that there will have to be a good deal more public consultation than is usually the case here if some of the recommendations are to meet with approval.

In this context, as one former member of Chief Pleas told me after he had read it, our 28 conseillers could do worse than remember that governments don't actually have any money of their own – they use ours.

On the issue of consultation, several residents have already made the point to me that the discussion/consultation process needs to start before the politicians have started formulating their propositions. A public meeting after such decisions are taken and when matters just need a signature on the bottom of a sheet of paper before they are plonked on the Chief Pleas agenda simply will not do in this instance.

I'm told that our elected representatives have been assured that people are working night and day to find out who leaked a copy of Ms Crowe's report to the Sark Newsletter. I hope whoever is doing this doesn't waste too much time on it and I say that as someone who, in 30-plus years in journalism in Jersey, was the subject of three such investigations – one ordered by the Royal Court and two by the States – because of articles I wrote that were based on leaked documents.

In one of the States inquiries a senior politician said that my 'head would roll' if I failed to divulge the source. I let it be known that my head would roll with my lips still sealed and that's where the investigation ended. By and large, such exercises create much work with nothing to show for it in the end. They are a waste of time.

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My reference to the sheep racing earlier reminds me that because of the demand for seats Sark Shipping is running an extra boat on Saturday 21 July, leaving Guernsey at noon.

In addition, there is a sailing from Sark at 9.30 that evening.

However, now that there's a royal visit on the Thursday there may be merit – for those interested in passing the time of day with Charles and Camilla – in making a long weekend of it and booking in from Thursday until Monday morning, but please check accommodation availability first.

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