SOME weeks ago I wrote about the June edition of Sark’s monthly journal – La Vouair de Sercq, written and published since January 2002 by Jennifer Cochrane – being the last because Ms Cochrane was leaving her home at La Seigneurie and, unless she found somewhere else to live, would have to leave the island.

I now see from the weekly newsletter she produces for the Sark Tourism website that the one published next Friday – 26 June – is likely also to be her last, thus ending an association which began in 2000.

However, Bob Parsons, who runs the souvenir shop in The Avenue and was a candidate in last year’s general election, has said that he is willing to start what he describes as an ‘independent journal for Sark’ from the beginning of July.

After praising Ms Cochrane’s dedication and determination in producing almost 100 editions of La Vouair, Mr Parsons said that many years ago he did something similar – the Whitfield News, a monthly newspaper for a village in Kent – and so he had a good idea of what is involved.

He said that his principal objective will be producing an independent journal which celebrated all that is positive about Sark while also giving readers the opportunity to raise and discuss matters of interest to the island.

‘I would also hope to encourage Chief Pleas committees to contribute with matters to stimulate discussion and so add to the consultation process,’ he said. ‘Two matters which spring to mind immediately are the ongoing discussions on harnessing tidal power and how that may benefit residents and the issue of smoking in public and work places.’

Mr Parsons said that if the publication is to be successful – in a community rather than financial sense because he realises it cannot make money – then ‘it must contain as much information as possible contributed by as many individuals as possible because the objective is to make readers think of it as our newspaper’.

It seems to me that Mr Parsons is perhaps trying to emulate the founder of the Guiton Group, which owns the Guernsey Press and its sister paper, the Jersey Evening Post.

Walter Guiton once said that no matter was too small to be of interest to his readers and above all ‘names are the name of the game’.

I hope the venture is a success because there is no doubt that there will be a void without La Vouair.

The children from Chernobyl made their annual visit to Sark earlier this week, thanks to the generosity of a number of businesses and individuals whose donations made the continuation of this now traditional event possible.

First stop was at the Visitor Centre, which is currently staging an exhibition of the artwork done by the pupils at Sark School and that was followed by some shopping in The Avenue.

Lunch, as always, was at the Aval du Creux Hotel. During the afternoon the island’s guests were entertained by members of the Fire Brigade – I have no doubt that copious amounts of water were involved in that entertainment – and later met up with pupils of Sark School for a game of rounders.

Having publicised forthcoming events recently, I was gently chided (in a tongue-in-cheek fashion) for not including the annual St Peter’s Church fete which takes place in the Vicarage garden on Saturday 1 August.

It’s always a relaxing event and it never ceases to amaze me how it manages to raise many thousands of pounds in the two hours it’s open to the public. Absolutely marvellous.

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