The States passed the motion by 37 votes to zero with only one abstention, with a number of deputies referring to the loan as a ‘no-brainer’.
The policy letter authorises Policy & Resources to provide a loan facility of up to £1.5m. to Chief Pleas of Sark, for the purpose of purchasing Sark Electricity Limited and any remedial work required.
Sark Electricity’s managing director Alan Witney-Price said the decision had led to a buyer lined up to purchase his company pulling out.
‘The sale is dead and Chief Pleas will now attempt to use a compulsory purchase order to take over the company,’ he said.
‘We will challenge it in any court that we have to.’
He added that he would not sell the island’s sole power supplier to Chief Pleas under any circumstances.
‘This will roll through the courts for years, and be an absolute nightmare,’ he said.
‘And it will be the Guernsey taxpayer who bears the brunt of the legal costs. Sark has a fixed price with the officers of the Crown. It doesn’t matter whether they get one minute of legal advice or hundreds. This is utterly nonsensical and will cost millions.’
The policy letter debated by the States of Guernsey valued SEL assets between £400,000 to £500,000, but Mr Witney-Price said that Chief Pleas had no understanding of the market value of the company.
‘Chief Pleas has no economic plan, no tourism plan and no island plan. If I sold it [SEL] to Chief Pleas it would be signing the island’s death warrant. They are inept. I might as well set fire to the island.’
The terms of the loan stipulate that Sark participates in the Bailiwick Commission and that duties on alcohol, fuel and tobacco collected by the States of Guernsey on behalf of the Chief Pleas be used as a security guarantee to repay the loan.
It also says that Chief Pleas must undertake a comprehensive review of Sark’s taxation regime, which currently has no income tax, to ensure future investment.
President of P&R Lyndon Trott told the Assembly that Sark was a great place, but needed to modernise and raise enough revenue to ‘wash its face’.
He added that the loan was completely de-risked for the Guernsey taxpayer and it was the right thing to do from a neighbourly perspective.
‘There have been a number of false promises made by an individual who we’re not absolutely certain is, in fact, the ultimate beneficial owner of this entity [SEL],’ he said.
‘This has posed some challenges, but remember, what we’re doing here is asking this Assembly to approve a loan in principle, for further negotiation with Chief Pleas. Chief Pleas will need to ensure that its government is content with the terms that we offer, but these are the terms. They’re not open to negotiation.’
The loan proposals, will now be brought to Chief Pleas for debate at an extraordinary meeting, with a date expected to be announced shortly.
‘We need to deliver the changes that the people of Sark want,’ said Policy & Finance chairman John Guille.
‘A safe and secure community-owned electricity system is a key part of this.’
Future Energy Committee chairman Mike Locke agreed.
‘The priority is to take the system into local control, so we can have a safe, reliable supply of energy,’ he said.
‘Today is a significant step on that journey.’
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.