Chief Pleas refuses to pay electricity levy

Sark's politicians have said they will not pay the levy on a number of public sites

Sark's government has written to the island's electricity company to say it will not be paying higher charges at some public sites.

Sark Electricity Limited (SEL) has raised prices to £1.13 per unit, including 60p of levies for legal fees.

The Treasury Department said it was refusing to pay the levy as it was "conscious of its duty to spend public money responsibly".

SEL owner Alan Witney-Price said a 40p per unit levy is needed for his legal case against the compulsory purchase of the firm by Chief Pleas, and 20p is for any legal fees of the prices inquiry.

Chief Pleas has sent Mr Witney-Price a list of sites, which it said are "essential public services", that it would refuse to pay the increased price.

Those include Sark's school, the medical centre and the ambulance shed.

The department said any attempt to interfere with the electricity supply of these sites would put the health, safety and wellbeing of the people of Sark at risk.

The increase is more than double the previous tariff.

Previously, Mr Witney Price said people who did not pay would be put on payment meters.

"You should note, for the avoidance of doubt, that because the government of Sark does not consider the imposition of these levies would be lawful, it follows that we do not consider that any step taken by SEL in consequence of their non-payment, including disconnection from the electricity supply and the conversion of electricity meters to pre-paid meters, would be lawful either," said the government.

The government is not the first to come out to refuse to pay the extra charges, Seigneur Christopher Beaumont is among a number of residents who said they will not be paying until the price control commissioner determines whether it is fair and reasonable.

At the start of the month, the island's Electricity Price Control Commission said the price rise was "neither fair nor reasonable" in a preliminary finding.

Responding to the letter Mr Witney-Price said Chief Pleas had recently sought assurance from Guernsey that its legal representation, which is carried out by the Law Officers, would "remained fixed" at £84,000.

"[That is] a fraction of its true cost to Guernsey residents," he said.

"While Chief Pleas holds this blank cheque from the Guernsey taxpayer it will continue to peruse questionable and costly legal strategies such as the one on display here."

Mr Witney-Price said: "Once Sark is accountable for the true cost of its own decisions will it start to make better ones."

Chair of the Future Energy committee Conseiller Mike Locke said it was "untrue" to claim that the island's legal fees were subsidised by Guernsey's taxpayers.

"We have our own arrangement with the law officers of the Crown," he said.

"We don't see these unfair and unreasonable levies are enforceable in law, SEL has no right to enforce these charges and we don't see a long and protracted legal fight over that."