The island’s government, called Chief Pleas, outlined the measure in a letter to Lord Keen, the UK minister with responsibility for the Crown Dependencies.
The letter was in response to a call by the minister for the island to demonstrate good governance following the rejection of its 2019 Budget, subsequent resignation of the only civil servant, and failure to hold a contested election in the last six years.
These issues have been compounded by the dispute between Chief Pleas and Sark Electricity Ltd, which plans to shut down on 30 November following a row over its prices.
The letter, which was sent last month, reveals that Sark has had to dig into its reserves to cover £150,000 in legal fees in support of the electricity price commissioner, whose ruling to cut the price from 66p per unit to 52p is being challenged by Sark Electricity, which says it is now losing £20,000 a month.
Those legal costs will double if a five-day court case goes ahead in Guernsey next month.
‘We are… as a matter of urgency, altering the emergency plans so that we can manage an interruption to the supply, on island, provided that the generating machinery remains operational,’ the letter said. ‘In the event that the plant is damaged then we would need to import generating capacity to maintain essential island services.
‘We believe that we will need your assistance to identify suitable support in that extreme situation, perhaps from the military under Military Aid to the Civil Authorities. This could include flying in mobile generators to provide electricity to the island.’
A number of generators arrived in Sark this week and it is not yet known whether the island still requires military assistance.
The managing director of Sark Electricity has previously said that if the firm closes down, residents would have no choice but to leave Sark, as the power supply also drives the island’s water supply.
Sark’s Seigneur, Christopher Beaumont, this week rubbished the claims, stating: ‘Where the German Occupation failed, so will he.’
