This Is Guernsey

By Phil Falle

The former Squire’s Restaurant in The Avenue which is being totally refurbished. It is one of eight food outlets in just a few hundred yards. (Picture by Philip Falle, 0538107)

ON THE days when Sark Shipping’s services permit such things – Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, along with the occasional Saturday shopping trips – day trippers have been putting in the occasional appearance.

That is welcome news for those who depend upon tourism for their living – an increasing number, if most reports are to be believed – because the ‘season’, dependent as it is on reasonable weather, is short enough already.

Earlier this week I recognised a pair of regular visitors from Guernsey and some of the comments they made certainly gave me food for thought.

Not unusually for Guernsey residents, both have been coming to Sark for many decades, more frequently now they are retired, but this was the first time they’ve experienced the crisp February air.

Indeed, the last time they came was early summer last year and so the changes in The Avenue were immediately apparent to them both.

They agreed that the eyesores – principally what were known as the old bike shops – which for too long have blighted the appearance of Sark’s principal thoroughfare are the better for a liberal lick of paint and signs of activity within.

However, although this pleased them, they did express misgivings about where the customers were coming from and, perhaps more importantly, whether any or all the new enterprises would have such an effect on those already established that one or more might go to the wall.

These are very valid points and they identify fears which have been expressed to me by those already in business.

As one such said to me within the last week or so, perhaps there’s enough business for three general grocery shops but what would be the effect if a fourth opened?

Similarly, one hairdresser with a part-time assistant can cater comfortably for the needs of the resident population, but what would be the effect if one of the many new faces I see on my walks decided to open in competition?

One of the joys of living in Sark – and there are very many of them – is the absence of the unnecessary bureaucracy which impinges upon the lives of people living elsewhere.

That is particularly noticeable coming here, as I did, from what I would argue was one of the most regulated places on earth – Jersey.

That said, the couple I met suggested that the sort of protectionism that exists there which, although it adds to the bureaucracy, arguably keeps some ‘local’ businesses going because permits are needed to set up new enterprises, may well become necessary here, albeit on a more informal basis.

For example, with eight places to eat already competing with each other in the few hundred yards between the top of Harbour Hill and the Tourism Office at the end of The Avenue, most people would probably agree that Sark needs another cafe or restaurant in that area like it needs a hole in the head.

Quite what can be done to stop get-rich-quick merchants from making the quick buck and then sloping off from whence they came – leaving established businesses to pick up the crumbs – is beyond me.

Perhaps carefully thought-out amendments to the planning law might be the answer, giving the Development Control Committee the power to take into account the need for such a facility when considering an application for the change of use of the premises in question.

I am not advocating that particular course of action –

for one thing it would encourage those who oppose virtually all progress and development and whose policies, if implemented, would lead ultimately to a stagnant economy and community – but simply trying to open up what I believe to be a valid issue for debate.

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I referred earlier to a few tourists already showing their welcome faces and a swift look at the calendar indicates that Sark Shipping’s summer timetable takes effect from 17 March, less than four weeks from now.

While according to the website I was looking at, the Manches Iles service from Jersey follows just a couple of weeks or so later, starting on 2 April.

The vast majority of our 45,000 or so annual tourists come via or from Guernsey and I know that Sark Shipping has looked at its fare structure with a view to making it more attractive financially not to travel on the popular 10am departure from Guernsey.

For those contemplating just a day as a welcome post-winter gloom break, a look at those fares could possibly be worthwhile.

* The email address for comment is fallesark@sark.net.