Attempt at communication fails at the 'closed door' of Seigneur, says Sark First

With the support of more than 100 Sark residents, approximately 25% of the population, we are currently petitioning the European Court of Human Rights, asking them to enable change to the 2008 and 2010 reform laws to allow a system of government that will represent all residents of Sark.

Subsequent to many attempts at communication with our conseillers, the Ministry of Justice and representatives of the States of Guernsey, in an effort to highlight our concerns, we are frequently told that the only avenue currently open is to 'engage' with our government to enable any change.

While we feel that that avenue of communication is in no way effective we have recently written to the Seigneur, Michael Beaumont, appealing to him to use his power and influence to ask Chief Pleas to consider the implementation of a dual-badged officer for policing and border control on Sark.

Initially we received a somewhat muted response from the Seigneur suggesting that he would consider the proposals that had been sent to him and, provided those proposals were worthy, he would present them to Chief Pleas.

With this in mind, we have formulated draft proposals suggesting achievable means as to how policing and border control could be implemented.

These proposals were sent to the Seigneur on 12 October 2015. We have not received any confirmation of receipt of these proposals. We have written on two subsequent occasions asking for a response to our letters and have received nothing in return.

Sark First was formed as a pressure group as we felt disenfranchised and unable to communicate with our government.

This current attempt at meaningful communication and engagement and the 'closed door' result is a prime example of the dismissive attitude of the feudocratic government of Sark.

TONY LE LIEVRE,

Sark First.

• Below are links to PDFs of the correspondence between Sark First and Seigneur Michael Beaumont.

• 2015.09.08-SF Michael Beaumont re Border Agency

• 2015.09.16-Seigneur SF re Border Agency

• 2015.10.12-SF Michael Beaumont Response

• 2015.11.09-SF Michael Beaumont Response

• 2015.12.08-SF Michael Beaumont Response

• SF Press Release Correspondence with the Seigneur