MoJ workshop discusses 'the problems facing Sark'

ON TUESDAY people from Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney and the Isle of Man, as well as a Ministry of Justice representative from London, sat in the comfortable surroundings of Government House in Guernsey to discuss Sark.

More specifically, as I understand it they discussed, in what was described in the formal record of last week's Chief Pleas decisions as a Ministry of Justice workshop, 'the problems facing Sark'.

According to the official record, the discussions were to include the implementation of Belinda Crowe's report and how to consult effectively with the people of Sark.

While I am the first to appreciate that there are occasions when Sark needs all the help it can get, and at the same time realise also that I run the risk of sounding a mite churlish, I would have thought that this extremely important issue might have been better being discussed first by those who will foot the bill if Ms Crowe's recommendations are implemented – namely Sark's taxpayers.

I and many other residents get the feeling that there is a distinct possibility – and I put it no stronger than that – that there is a move afoot to rush Sark into a situation where its residents will be presented with something tantamount to a fait accompli accompanied with a heavy hint that not only does the Ministry of Justice favour implementation of Ms Crowe's suggestions but our friends in the other Crown Dependencies concur.

Surely it would have been better to hold a public meeting here directly after her report was published rather than first enlisting the aid of the ministry and the other dependencies' governments.

In this humble scribe's view it is the people of Sark who surely know what is best for their island rather than those who, with all due respect, may well know little or nothing about this place.

Consultation with the people of Sark first could easily have been followed by discussions with others on how best to implement the changes those people desire. While I am sure that it was never the intention, to do things the other way round seems to some people to be impolite. At best, it is a funny way of getting onside those whose support is essential.

The last thing Sark needs right now is a rerun of the drawn-out saga which led, after too many years of big Whitehall sticks being wielded and goalposts being moved on a regular basis, to the implementation of the Reform Law.

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The Road Traffic Committee has drawn up a series of pamphlets giving guidance to virtually every road user bar pedestrians on how easy it is to break one or more of the legal requirements associated with the use of tractors, invalid carriages (that phrase upsets some, but it's what's in the law) and horse-drawn carriages.

They are useful documents and those involved in these forms of transport could do worse than study them carefully. I direct those remarks particularly to carriage drivers and draw their attention to the prohibition on 'importuning' for business.

There are few sights more off-putting to visitors than that of three or four carriage drivers standing across the width of the road near the carriage park at La Collinette and touting for business, leaving precious little room for anyone to pass without being accosted.

It is like a scene from High Noon and something drivers such as the late Ann Rive deplored.

She often remarked that visitors invariably knew whether they wanted a carriage drive or not and would act accordingly without being pressured.

I agree wholeheartedly with her view.

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