Sark commissioner Shane Lynch, who has been investigating recent price hikes, said a new price control order would come into effect from midnight on 30 September at the latest.
However, the new maximum unit price which Sark Electricity Ltd can charge has yet to be set, but it is far more likely to be close to the previous cap of 51p set in February than the £1.13p that Sark residents would have been facing this month.
SEL increased prices by 132%, with less than a week’s notice, at the end of August, with the new price including tariffs of 60p and 20p added to pay legal fees in a fight against the compulsory purchase of the company and predicted restrictions from the island’s price control commissioner.
In his report, Mr Lynch said that pursuant to the relevant law he must only determine if the price which is being charged for the supply of electricity was fair and reasonable.
‘Legal costs associated with challenging a government decision are not identified in Section 13 (2) the Law as a specific cost of supplying electricity that must be taken into consideration when making a determination,’ he wrote.
Despite the report only being published on Tuesday, SEL already plans to appeal the decision and has instructed advocates.
In a letter seen by the Guernsey Press, AFR Advocates have written to Mr Lynch saying that they have already written to the courts seeking ‘injunctive relief’ to prevent any price control order from taking effect until determination of any appeal proceedings and that ‘indemnity costs’ would be sought.
In another twist to the long-running dispute between Sark’s government and the island’s sole power supplier, SEL has threatened to take legal action against Chief Pleas unless they take down a letter on its website which states Chief Pleas would not pay the additional legal levies and considered them ‘unlawful’.
‘Regrettably, your letter portrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the Control of Electricity Prices Law, 2016,’ AFR Advocates wrote on Tuesday.
‘Your suggestion that a price control order may render the levy within the announcement unlawful and therefore unenforceable is, respectfully, plainly wrong.
‘The purpose of this letter is to advise you that in the event you fail to pay your electricity charges in full as they fall due, our client will consider any and all options available to it, including disconnection.’
The lawyers went on to say that charges were not unlawful and that these claims should not have been made in a publicly available document. ‘That is entirely wrong, damages our client’s reputation and, our client suspects, was designed to incite other residents of Sark to abandon their obligations in paying their electricity bills as they fall due. Our client is not prepared to allow such a profligate letter, extraordinarily written by the Government of Sark, to remain in the public domain.’
The advocates then went on to say that the letter must be removed by 4pm on Friday and a retraction letter published in its place or SEL would seek damages.
The letter still remained on the government’s website late yesterday afternoon.
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