Sark’s residents and businesses are expected to pay their full bills for September – including the two additional charges levied by the island’s only electricity provider – despite a Price Control Order being imposed.
Sark Electricity Limited issues bills on a monthly basis, with September’s charges due for payment by 15 October.
Throughout September SEL charged an additional 60p per unit made up of a 40p per unit legal levy intended to raise funds to challenge the compulsory purchase of the utility, and a 20p per unit levy to fight the Electricity Price Commissioner’s investigation into the first ‘legal levy’.
The EPC found the charges were neither fair nor reasonable and issued SEL with a Price Control Order on 30 September. That took effect at 00:01 on 1 October.
The cost of electricity in Sark had rocketed to £1.13 per unit during September, but the PCO forced SEL to drop its charges to a maximum of 52p per unit.
As the order only took effect on 1 October, SEL’s owner has shared a letter he has written to Sark’s Treasury informing them they must pay all charges for September or he will instigate legal action.
Alan Witney-Price also confirmed that SEL is preparing to appeal the Price Control Order. He said September’s bills must be paid in the meantime.
Mr Witney-Price acknowledged that Chief Pleas is likely to ignore his letter and will refuse to pay the additional levies for September, to ramp up the situation between the two parties as they head for a courtroom battle over the compulsory purchase of his business.
“Given your current stance on this matter we anticipate that you will simply seek to breach your lawful obligations and withhold payment in some effort to force SEL to propose disconnecting primary services so that you can instigate some form of a response through Civil Contingencies,” he wrote. “I encourage you to consider that such brinkmanship on your part is highly questionable and improper. Such similar conduct is the hallmark of Chief Pleas going back many years and this is a factor that will weigh heavily on any determinations made by the Court.”
Mr Witney-Price has again reiterated that he does not wish to sell SEL to Chief Pleas and instead wants to do a deal with IslandPower.