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Sark U-turn on civil servant(2)

Sark has decided it will have a civil servant after all, after conseillers there voted to create a new post on the tiny Channel Island.

Senior Manx civil servant Colin Kniveton was seconded to the Island for a year to help set up an administration system.

But when he returned to the Isle of Man, the Chief Pleas of Sark rejected the plans – saying they didn’t see the need to spend money on a civil servant.

However, they’ve now looked at the issue again.

The General Purposes and Advisory Committee discussed a new report which had been put together after the original report into the post led to it being voted down at Easter.

After that vote, Sark residents had been sent letters explaining what a Permanent Senior Administrator would do, and workshops had been held for the conseillers.

Six members said they’d now changed their minds after hearing this year’s budget wouldn’t need any more money to pay for the post.

They voted 21 to four in favour of recruiting Sark’s first ever full-time, permanent civil servant.

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