This Is Guernsey

By Phil Falle

Sark Shipping, charging now for excess baggage. (0264838)

SARK Shipping has slapped a £1 fuel surcharge on return fares and introduced a baggage allowance with £5 an item being charged for excess.

This follows hard on the heels of the introduction of a £2 fee being imposed for credit-card transactions and 50p for debit cards, although strange as it may seem, the system of charging fares to an individual’s account with the shipping company remains unchanged.

Sark residents were told of the fuel surcharge and baggage changes on 1 May, the day they were introduced.

They say that in line with some other island community carriers – I’m not too sure what that means, a reference to Flybe perhaps – the free personal baggage allowance will be limited to two pieces per passenger with a maximum combined weight of 25 kilos.

Additional items will be charged at £5 each but unless this amount is prepaid and there is sufficient space on the vessel, these will be sent on the next available cargo service.

Apparently exceptions will be made for workmen with tools, who will be given an additional 15 kilos’ allowance, and Sark residents returning to their home after designated winter shopping trips (to Guernsey), who will be allowed 50kgs, double the usual allowance.

However, anything weighing more than 20kgs will have to be carried on by passengers as Sark Shipping staff are not allowed to lift anything heavier because of what these days is euphemistically described as good old ‘elf ‘n safety’ – Health and Safety being a concept unknown to most Sark residents.

I wrote recently that I had sympathy with Sark Electricity being forced to increase prices because of the huge surge in the cost of oil and that same sympathy is extended to Sark Shipping, which clearly can’t be expected to absorb such sums.

As the shipping company pointed out, it had budgeted for a 30% rise but the price of oil has now risen by more than twice that to 70% and it is unrealistic to expect it not to impose a surcharge.

As to the baggage charge, I make two points. One was made to me by a Chief Pleas member who suggested that an inevitable result of baggage being carried on both the Bon Marin and the Sark Venture means that valuable seating accommodation is lost because there is nowhere else to put suitcases and mail but on seats.

‘This may well be the penalty we pay for cancelling the order for a dual-purpose passenger and cargo vessel which had provision for baggage,’ he said.

The other point relates to what the company describes as ‘designated winter shopping trips’ to Guernsey. Why only winter? Speaking personally, my wife and I do not restrict such forays into St Peter Port and its environs to the winter months but actually shop for certain items throughout the year.

It is hoped the weather will be kind to us and Sark Shipping during the next few weeks and in doing so will enable the company to bring as many visitors as possible  because there is much to be enjoyed.

Tomorrow is Sark’s Liberation Day and, as is customary, the Chelsea Pensioners will be the island’s guests – they are staying overnight as well – in a full programme of events, most of which are centred on the Island Hall.

The Sark Earth Fayre will also be held tomorrow – an event which, on its own, is well worth the trip across. Apart from all that is good in music, food and drink being available, there are also a number of innovative events planned – scarecrow throwing, sawing logs, cabbage skittles, various competitions involving tractors and lawnmowers and much more.

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Tourism has also organised a number of walks for the very many people who love this place for its peace, tranquillity and closeness to nature.

Film-maker Sue Daly will be taking whoever wants to go to the Gouliot Headland on 29 May to give them a chance to see first-hand the area which, thanks principally to the efforts of Jo Birch, was last year formally designated a Ramsar site of international importance.

The following week, on 5 June, Ms Daly will take visitors (and local residents, I suspect) on a mystery walk, which means, by definition, that I can’t give out any further information.

In addition, there will be dawn chorus walks on 18 and 25 May and 1 and 8 June – with a 6am kick-off – and, for those who can’t get up in the mornings, there’ll also be bat walks on 14, 21 and 28 May and 4 and 11 June, with an 8.30 pm start.

The Visitor Centre has more information on all these events and bookings should be made through them on 832345.

As I said, there’s a lot happening here and it’s all well worth a visit.

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