Sark Electricity admits failing to remove its equipment from land

La Tour tenement owner Sebastien Moerman took legal action in 2020 when he decided he wanted to generate his own power and did not want the electricity company’s equipment on his land.

A court order in November last year instructed that all the surface equipment would be removed by 23 December, and that a schedule of works for the underground cables would be drawn up later.

At a sitting of the Ordinary Division of the Royal Court almost a year later, Advocate Mark Ferbrache, representing Mr Moerman, said that none of the order had been fully complied with.

While it appeared that some, but not all, of the above-ground cabling had been taken away, none of the underground cabling had been removed.

Sark Electricity owner and director Alan Witney-Price said that the remaining cable above ground belonged to the customer, since it was a feed from a junction box that did belong to SEL and which had been removed.

He said it was no longer connected, and Mr Moerman was free to remove it.

Advocate Ferbrache said that the company had told Mr Moerman that the underground work would be completed by the end of May this year, but this had not happened.

Mr Witney-Price said that the second Covid lockdown, problems of supply and continuing restrictions after the lockdown ended had meant the work had not been done.

Lt-Seneschal Hazel Marshall told Mr Witney-Price that he should at least have told the plaintiff or the court what was going on.

‘You don’t just sit there and not obey the order, because courts get upset by that kind of thing,’ she said.

Mr Witney-Price said he had been told by his contractor that the work could be done by 30 December.

After an adjournment for a brief discussion between the two parties, this was accepted, and Lt-Seneschal Marshall made the order as requested, giving the parties the option to return to court on two clear days’ notice if there were any problems.