Chief Pleas' 'anti-business agenda' leaves Sark struggling

BUSINESSES want Chief Pleas to stop treating 'commerce' as a dirty word, the UK minister with responsibility for the Crown Dependencies has been told.

Sark Chamber of Commerce president Paul Armorgie, pictured, presented Minister of State for Justice Lord McNally with a document outlining its concerns that no single committee in Chief Pleas had a remit for economic development.

'While elements of the "anti-business" activity from Chief Pleas may stem from a desire to curtail the activities of Sark Estate Management, the wider reality of erosion in business confidence is being felt by all local businesses,' the report said.

'Compounding this overall anti-business agenda, Chief Pleas' attempts to engage with and promote local investment in Sark and to improve our core market of tourism, upon which the entire island depends either as a primary provider or secondary supporter, is virtually non-existent.

'Committee after committee is creating a legislative programme which is introducing more and more red tape into an economy which is desperately struggling to cope.'