Sark’s Chief Pleas is ‘playing a game of brinkmanship’ with people’s lives
Re: ‘Guernsey Electric could step in if Sark Electricity pulls the plug’, 13 November.
I would like to correct a few inaccuracies in this article.
‘Guernsey would act if the negotiations between SEL and Chief Pleas did not come to fruition’.
There are no negotiations between SEL and Chief Pleas to try to resolve the situation and allow SEL to keep selling electricity. The only negotiations surround ‘Have we damaged your company enough that you are now willing to sell it to us for scrap value’.
They have been given a number of options to resolve the situation, such as providing legal aid to allow us to appeal a control order that requires us to make a £20,000 loss each month. They refused even to debate this in Chief Pleas.
They could offer a subsidy to allow us to continue, but both of these work against their plan to destroy the company so that they can acquire it for peanuts. We offered them the operating part of the company for £1 so they could run it for themselves, but they don’t believe their responsibility for ensuring an essential service requires them to accept any of the risks they have created.
‘However, it [Chief Pleas] had to plan...in case it did happen’.
The only plan they have is to ask Guernsey (again) to bail them out of a situation of their own making. They have no plans to resolve it themselves. If we don’t accept the forced sale, they will continue their attacks on Sark’s family-owned and financed electricity company, while relying on GEL to bail them out of the consequences.
‘Chief Pleas is taking every possible step to avoid a shut down’.
Again, not so. They are playing a game of brinkmanship with the lives of the Sarkese, trying to force my family out while relying on GEL to ensure they still have electricity in their own homes. Unlike our retirement community who make themselves important by playing in Chief Pleas, the true Sarkese are only concerned with putting bread on the table and looking after their families.
Chief Pleas wants to play ‘chicken’ with their lives but I want to assure them that we are exploring every possible way to be able to continue to provide them with the Channel Islands’ most reliable power supply.
I would also like to assure the good people at GEL that I will do my best to keep them out of the nightmare called Sark Politics.
DAVID GORDON-BROWN
MD, Sark Electricity.