The new company will be wholly owned by Chief Pleas and is intended to provide ‘a clear legal and operational structure’ for the initial period after the purchase. Its immediate priorities would be keeping electricity generation and distribution running, giving employees certainty and security, managing the infrastructure professionally, and carrying out urgent remedial work needed to protect safety and reliability.
Policy & Finance Committee chairman Conseiller John Guille said Chief Pleas had approved ‘the legal foundations needed to ensure a safe and orderly transfer of electricity operations once compulsory purchase is complete’.
‘Sark Power Limited will keep ownership and strategic control with Chief Pleas, while providing the professional structure, clear responsibilities and limited liability needed to operate essential infrastructure,’ he said.
‘It is an interim step, not the final destination. Once the network is understood, urgent safety work has been completed and operations are stable, Chief Pleas will be in a much stronger position to move towards a community-based ownership model.’
The company’s articles include a specific requirement that its board draw up and implement a plan for the business to be held through a Sark community-based ownership structure, in line with directions from Chief Pleas. James Lancaster, former managing director of Alderney Electricity, has been appointed interim managing director, with proposed non-executive directors to be brought to a future meeting.
The compulsory purchase process itself remains ongoing. A Lt-Seneschal has been appointed to deal with the valuation methodology, and Chief Pleas is awaiting a hearing date at which direction will be given on how Sark Electricity’s assets should be valued before the valuation is carried out.
The committee acknowledged that the unresolved situation was ‘distressing for residents and businesses and creates continuing risk given the condition of the electricity network’, and said it was doing everything within its remit to move the process forward ‘as quickly as possible, while ensuring that each step is properly and lawfully completed’.
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