Three of Sark Shipping's four vessels moored in St Peter Port.

SARK SHIPPING’S standard return fare to or from Guernsey is to increase by 80p on Monday to £26.30.

There may well have been a public announcement about the fare increase – which amounts to about 3.13% – but if that is the case, then it managed to pass me by. The first I heard of it was earlier this week when someone somewhat gleefully announced that she was ‘saving’ herself 80p by travelling to Guernsey on Sunday afternoon rather than on Monday morning.

While a price rise of just over 3% is hardly swingeing, in terms of the island’s principal industry of tourism, it still means that a couple of pensioners coming here on a day trip from Guernsey have to shell out a few pence short of £55 (if you include a quid each for getting the toast rack up Harbour Hill), and that’s before they’ve had a cup of tea and a currant bun.

It’s a lot of money, which is why the wise words of the late Tim Craft should be heeded. Speaking at the time of the ‘big debate’ some years ago about the return fare breaking the £20 barrier, Tim said that if value for money was given to visitors once they’d reached the top of Harbour Hill, then they’d worry less about what it cost to get there.

With that in mind, and yet again sticking my head above the parapet, friends and family who’ve stayed with or visited us this summer have all remarked how expensive it is to eat in certain places when prices are compared with previous holidays here.

I have noticed it as well, so perhaps over the autumn and winter months, there could be an accord reached between those who provide the excellent eating-out facilities we enjoy in Sark to at least moderate 2012 price rises. I’m no economist but I know that when I take a break away from here next year, the amount of money I am willing to spend will not be any more than it was this year.

The tourism cake is only so big and it seems to me that all those involved in the tourist industry in Sark will only succeed in the long term if they consistently offer real value for money.

*

While on a tourism theme, I understand that taken as a whole, last weekend’s StarFest was met with nods of approval from the many who attended the various events on offer and so it’s congratulations to those whose efforts made this inaugural Sark Dark Skies venture a success, which can hopefully be built upon.

As to dark skies, having just received an electricity bill, which, despite huge efforts on the part of this household to reduce consumption, still manages to tempt me to reach for a stiff drink before I open it, if Sark Electricity costs continue as they are – 57p a unit, for those Guernsey readers who complain about their costs – we will be a truly dark island in every sense of the word.

*

The one bit of welcome relief in the envelope was a letter from the Professor Saint Medical Trust reminding everyone of the cheque presentation night on 18 November and repeating the need for a continuing supply of money to keep the trust going. It subsidises the cost of prescribed medication and is the island’s principal domestic charity.

The next column will be published in November, which means that, by Sark’s informal but worthwhile rules, I’ll just about be allowed to write about Christmas.

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