THE future of the loss-making retail outlets operated by the Manx Electricity Authority will be one of the main topics of debate when Tynwald sits in June.
Chief Minister Allan Bell said at today’s sitting of the house that it was too premature to begin discussing the MEA shops, as proposed in a motion by South Douglas MHK Kate Beecroft.
Mrs Beecroft suggested that the MEA’s five shops - in Castletown, Peel, Ramsey, Douglas and Port Erin - should cease trading “as soon as practical” because of the huge annual losses.
Other members also expressed their serious concerns over the enormous losses which were continuing to accumulate and were projected well into the long-term future.
However, Mr Bell said that the Council of Ministers was already looking at the subject and was in the middle of an assessment of the situation.
Two options mentioned during a brief debate were that the MEA’s retail premises - of which it owns three - could be sold as ‘going concerns’ or possibly leased in the future.
But Mr Bell said a debate at this point would not be constructive and he proposed an amendment, accepted by everyone in the house, including Mrs Beecroft, that a report be submitted no later than the June sitting of Tynwald when a full debate could take place.
