Raie Craft wants dog owners to clean up. (0737108)

SARK Chamber of Commerce president Peter Tonks struck an optimistic – if cautious – note about the island’s future economic prospects at the organisation’s annual general meeting last week.

He said that anyone foolhardy enough to believe that Sark would be immune from the effects of the global financial situation was wrong as he believed that they would be felt, both here and elsewhere, for many years to come.

‘However, by [the Chamber and its members] working together here in Sark, including where appropriate with Chief Pleas and its committees, and with our links with other Chambers of Commerce in the Channel Islands and further afield, we can come through it,’ he said.

Mr Tonks is currently halfway through his two-year term of office and he told Chamber members that he hoped that when that term ends in March of next year, the organisation will be stronger and even more representative of Sark’s commercial life and ready to meet all demands as the effects of the recession recede and the island moves into brighter economic times.

The Sark Chamber holds monthly forums for its members at which specific issues are discussed and Mr Tonks announced that the April forum will focus on Sark Shipping and director Robert Taylour, who with Julie Mann was appointed to the company’s board by Chief Pleas last year, will be outlining the company’s current situation and its plans for the future.

Sark Shipping is wholly owned by the people of Sark and at the January meeting of Chief Pleas the company was given an interest-free loan of £200,000 as well as having existing loans of £335,000 converted into share capital.

Both directors have put in a considerable amount of time on Sark Shipping affairs since their appointment – much of it in Guernsey and at considerable cost to themselves – and have introduced a raft of measures designed to put the company on a more even financial keel.

Not surprisingly, given the amount of taxpayers’ money invested in Sark Shipping – with more likely to follow, according to what was said in Chief Pleas in January – interest in what the directors have to say is likely to be high.

The venue for the April forum is yet to be announced but it is likely that attendance will be limited to Chamber of Commerce members and invited guests.

In my experience it is often better to enlist the aid of a child in order to get a message across than it is for organisations or, worse still, government, to try to do the task themselves, and even better if that child does something spontaneously.

Most Sark residents will have seen evidence of that during the last week or so with the very unambiguous posters about dog muck designed and distributed by nine-year-old Raie Craft – a young lady who sounds as if she is at the end of her tether with the thoughtlessness of irresponsible dog owners.

‘Pick up your dog’s poo!’ she heads her poster. ‘As you might well have seen, there is dog poo all over the place – the Church, The Avenue and by our School. People have been stepping in it. Pick up your dog’s poo and put it in the new dog waste bin in The Avenue.’

No fence-sitting from Miss Craft then, and in the light of that I’ve made a mental note to nominate her for the 2020 elections for conseiller. She’d certainly rattle a few cages in Chief Pleas.

On a more serious note, the bin she referred to was one of a number being put up by Floral Sark – an excellent initiative and one which will hopefully shame the irresponsible dog owners into a more acceptable attitude in relation to their pets’ habits.

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