Trustees of Sark’s Old Island Hall taken to task over lease
AN INVESTIGATION into the leasing of Sark’s Old Island Hall has identified a large number of administrative errors made by many of the bodies and individuals involved, but has not found any evidence of misconduct.
It was carried out by Dr Melissa McCullough, who is also the CI Commissioner for Standards, on behalf of Sark’s Chief Pleas.
This followed the re-negotiation of the lease for the hall which saw a private individual being awarded it at a ‘peppercorn’ rent of £100 a month for 10 years, with an option to extend for another 10 years at the end of that time.
The resident had first approached Chief Pleas in 2006 about leasing the building, but was turned down, since there was an intention to demolish it and extend the island’s graveyard.
Three years later Chief Pleas had changed its mind, but the resident had decided to leave the island. It was only in October 2022 that he returned and, noting the hall was still in the same condition, approached the douzaine again, indicating his idea to create a bar or cafe on the site. This became the Old Hall Bistro and an open market flat was also built on the site.
Dr McCullough’s investigation looked into the background to the preparation and execution of the lease and whether correct processes were followed.
As well as interviewing members of all of the bodies involved, Dr McCullough spoke to members of the Code of Conduct Complaints Panel, which had investigated and upheld complaints against Tony Le Lievre, the chairman of the douzaine, and member Paul Williams over their roles in the process.
While the douzaine was found to have acted in good faith in negotiating the lease, Dr McCullough said it should have sought legal advice.
Dr McCullough concluded that the douzaine did not sufficiently scrutinise the terms of the lease and its execution and too much reliance was placed on the experience of the civil servants, the chief secretary and the committee support officer.
The advice of the civil servants should have included the consideration of legal advice and ‘needed to be more thoughtful, comprehensive, and skilful,’ wrote Dr McCullough in the report.
Trustees had not fully grasped their roles and responsibilities in relation to the lease, and could have been ‘more curious and proactive’.
The trustees should also have sought legal help before replacing the front and back pages of the lease in order to address concerns that had been raised about its validity.
At the same time, Dr McCullough said the Code of Conduct Panel had not stuck to the code’s processes, and had not fully recognised the significance of its role when investigating complaints.
‘This undermined the principles of democracy, impacted on already limited resources, and caused unnecessary reputational damage to Conseillers Le Lievre and Williams, the Old Island Hall and its tenants, and Sark in general,’ she wrote.
She made a similar observation regarding democracy and reputational damage in her comment about the island’s Seneschal’s involvement with the conduct panel, who she said had failed to carry out a review with the due diligence needed.
As a result, her endorsement of the panel’s processes and outcome was flawed.
But Dr McCullough concluded that all the errors were unintentional.
‘Having examined all the available evidence provided to me, I am satisfied that the decisions, actions and/or omissions by individuals of the douzaine, trustees, civil servants, the panel, the Seneschal or any of those bodies as a whole, in relation to the preparation, agreement and execution of the lease were not corrupt, dishonest or fraudulent; there was no identified misconduct.
‘There were numerous unintentional administrative errors, some significant. These errors encompassed decision-making mistakes and communication failures involving the douzaine, civil service, trustees and the Seneschal.’
The upheld Code of Conduct complaints against then Conseillers Le Lievre and Williams, would, had they still been sitting members of Chief Pleas, have seen them barred from sitting on the douzaine for three years and 12 months respectively.
Conseiller Frank Makepeace made the complaints and said that the mishandling of the lease had probably cost the island about £150,000 in lost revenue over a 20-year period.
