Sark’s Chief Pleas has removed a sitting Conseiller after she missed too many parliamentary meetings.
Mary Furness Nicolle was elected to Chief Pleas in 2024.
However, at last week’s meeting, the Speaker told Chief Pleas that she has missed too many meetings and was therefore disqualified.
Since publishing the first version of this article, Express has learned Ms Nicolle was absent from the 8 July meeting to deal with a family bereavement, so did not answer the roll call.
The Speaker, Paul Armogie then confirmed that no apologies had been made and said he had to make a brief statement under Section 31 of the Reform Sark Law 2008.
Conseiller Nicolle had “failed to attend three consecutive Ordinary Meetings of Chief Pleas,” he said.
“Upon receipt of a report from the Greffier to this effect, I unfortunately have no option but to declare that Conseiller Nicolle shall become disqualified and is required to vacate her office as a Conseiller immediately at the end of this meeting.”
This means that Chief Pleas is now a Conseiller down, but a by-election is not going to be held to replace Ms Nicolle as the next General Election is scheduled to be held in November.
Sark elects half of its government every two years.
Ms Nicolle’s vacant seat will be filled at the November election alongside the 14 roles due to be vacated this year.
Chief Pleas holds four Ordinary Meetings per year plus Extraordinary Meetings when necessary to discuss urgent matters.
The Midsummer meeting is held in July, the Michaelmas meeting in September, the Christmas meeting is held in January, and the Easter meeting is held in April usually.
Chief Pleas has already called an Extraordinary Meeting for December to vote new members onto its committees after the November election.
