The owner of Sark Electricity Limited has said he will be adding an additional charge to each electricity bill in the island to fund the firm’s defence against Chief Pleas’ planned compulsory purchase of it.
The island’s government wants to buy SEL so it can form a ‘community power’ initiative to run the power station at the top of Harbour Hill and the network.
Negotiations between the utility and the government has not led to any agreements so it’s likely that compulsory purchase will be used to finalise the deal, with a court-appointed valuer likely to set the price.
However, Alan Witney-Price is still not giving up without a fight.
He has written to customers explaining that “SEL is now forced into a situation where the Company must mount a legal challenge against Chief Pleas move to seize its assets and remove its income stream”.
He said this legal challenge will be partly funded by island residents and businesses with a 40p per unit charge coming into effect from 1 September.
“The Company has done everything that it could to avoid increasing the cost of electricity at this time,” explained Mr Witney-Price. “However, it must fund its defence against Chief Pleas move to seize its assets against its will. Seizing the company’s assets will reduce its value significantly and the Company has a right to defend itself against this assault and it will do so.”
Mr Witney-Price further explained that the legal levy will be collected from each customer and held by a third party “to ensure complete transparency”.
“The legal levy will be applied to customers’ bills and this component of the unit price will be paid away directly to Collas Crill to be held on a client monies account,” he said. “As legal expenses are incurred, they will be deducted from this fund. The Company will not hold these funds. A full reconciliation of levies paid, and deductions made will be provided to the EPC on a rolling basis.
“Once the legal matter has been concluded, if there are any funds remaining these will be returned to customers on a FIFO basis. This will ensure that the legal levy is not conflated with day-to-day Company funds. For absolute clarity, given these monies are significant they will not be held by the Company.”
Mr Witney-Price has indicated that the charge will be removed once the action being taken against SEL by Chief Pleas comes to an end.
“While changing the tariff is a major change, it is vital for the Company to be able to clearly demonstrate that much of the noise and misinformation that has been used to justify the seizure of the Companies assets simply does not stand up to basic scrutiny. Like you, we look forward to the day when the legal levy can be removed once again and Sark residents can enjoy the cheapest electricity available for the jurisdiction.”