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John Matthews Chair of Crest Nicholson “Please Help Us” – A Family Request

The Shalom Family Campaign for Social Justice Re-Crest Nicholson Plc | 31.10.2006 20:16 | Education | Health | Social Struggles | London | World

Stuck in the actuality of the third anniversary of their houseboat and home eviction, the Shalom Family from Wales made a special visit on 30th October, to Crest Nicholson’s brand new ‘Crest House’, in Chertsey, Surrey. The Family delivered a new letter of appeal, in perfect harmony with their cause for Social Justice, to Crest Plc Chairman John Matthews.

New Crest Home Crest House
New Crest Home Crest House

Pyrcroft Road Chertsey Surrey Home Address Crest Nicholson
Pyrcroft Road Chertsey Surrey Home Address Crest Nicholson

Crest House New Home Crest Family Group
Crest House New Home Crest Family Group

Crest House Chertsey With Family Campaigners for Social Justice
Crest House Chertsey With Family Campaigners for Social Justice

John Matthews Crest Plc Chair Post
John Matthews Crest Plc Chair Post

Family for Justice at Crest Plc With Post for Chair John Matthews
Family for Justice at Crest Plc With Post for Chair John Matthews

John Matthews Crest Plc Letter of Appeal and Justice Campaign Trail In Photos
John Matthews Crest Plc Letter of Appeal and Justice Campaign Trail In Photos

The Shalom Family Enter Crest House With Appeal Surrey
The Shalom Family Enter Crest House With Appeal Surrey

Crest Nicholson Plc Reception Enquiries For The Shalom Family
Crest Nicholson Plc Reception Enquiries For The Shalom Family

Family Introductions to Crest Nicholson Rep Crest House
Family Introductions to Crest Nicholson Rep Crest House

Shalom Family Appeal Accepted at Crest House Crest Plc
Shalom Family Appeal Accepted at Crest House Crest Plc

Crest House Crest Nicholson Wrong Way The Shalom Family Leave
Crest House Crest Nicholson Wrong Way The Shalom Family Leave

Evicted Sisters Having A Laugh Crest Nicholson Surrey
Evicted Sisters Having A Laugh Crest Nicholson Surrey

Vince Shalom Family Campaigner and Cameraman Social Justice Campaign
Vince Shalom Family Campaigner and Cameraman Social Justice Campaign

Chertsey Hall Surrey Pay Park and Walk To Crest Nicholson Plc Head Office Surrey
Chertsey Hall Surrey Pay Park and Walk To Crest Nicholson Plc Head Office Surrey


30th October 2005


Mr. John Matthews
Chair
Crest Nicholson Plc
Crest House
Pyrcroft Road
Chertsey
Surrey
KT16 9GN


Delivered by The Shalom Family



Our Family Re-Crest Nicholson Plc

(Crest Nicholson Marinas Limited)

Our Houseboat Eviction Penarth Marina October 28th 2003




Dear Mr. Matthews,


As a whole and united Family, we again wish to register our total grievance against your organisation, Crest Nicholson Plc, and we kindly refer you to the record.



You will undoubtedly recall our earlier enquiries and our extensive petitions for help, directed towards you, your fellow directors, and more generally - Crest Nicholson shareholders and the like. We certainly believe that Crest Nicholson Plc has seriously wronged our Family and that consequently we have all lost so much.



However, we also fully acknowledge that the wrong done to our Family and our Home and our personal private possessions, was vigorously executed whilst Crest Nicholson was operating under the full Leadership and Chief Executive Office of Mr. John Callcutt CBE. We also acknowledge that Mr. Callcutt has gone on to a better life- career, whilst we have had to come to terms with the legacy of his decisions. The impact on our lives cannot be understated.



We believe, as documented to the record, that John Callcutt CBE acted immorally whilst leading Crest Nicholson Plc. We also believe that in doing so, he may have deliberately misled you, your fellow directors and the Crest Nicholson organisation. We believe that he directed the company to perform what we consider to be an unacceptable and immoral act of violence against our Home, our Family and our way of life. There was a simple way that this matter could have been resolved, without John Callcutt’s dramatic approach and direction.


We reiterate that we are aware that Mr. Callcutt has moved on, that Crest’s subsidiary company, Crest Nicholson Marinas Limited has been sold off and that key management positions within the Crest Group have changed. Nevertheless, we know that you have remained Chair of the company and constantly informed throughout. God knows we have tried to inform you about everything and the way in which everything happened.


In any event, we believe that Crest Nicholson Plc have a moral duty to examine the record and put right what has been done wrong to our Family.


Whatever you may have been informed by past employees of the Crest Group, we are still just an ordinary Family who would dearly like to get on with our lives, minding our own business, just like any other ordinary Family. In the present circumstances, with such an injustice present and clear for all to see, we are not enabled to get on with our lives.


We again kindly ask you and Crest Plc to reconsider the record of events, which led to the eradication, and total destruction of our safe and satisfactory Family Home of 14 years. We again ask you to investigate this matter based solely upon the record and merit.



We kindly ask that you and Crest Plc Directors end this nightmare experience for our Family. Please help us. Please do the right thing.




We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,




Vincent Shalom
Marie Louise Shalom


With our daughters:



Hannah 15, Naomi 13, Rachel 9, Rebekah 7, and Jessica 6

Formerly of the Houseboat M V Picton Penarth Marina Wales
(A perfectly safe and satisfactory Houseboat Home of 14 years.)

Letter Ends:



Notes:

John Callcutt CBE now leads English Partnerships, the National Regeneration Agency.

John Matthews is also Chairman of Regus Group Plc and a Director with Rotork Plc, SDL Plc and Diploma Plc.

His appointment as Chairman of Crest Nicholson Plc in 1996 came one year before the Crest Nicholson organisation invited the Shaloms to set up Home, in their own Houseboat property at Penarth Marina, in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales.


The Shalom Family Campaign for Social Justice Re-Crest Nicholson Plc
- e-mail: wwwnoahsark@aol.com
- Homepage: http://www.mvpicton.co.uk

Comments

Hide the following 7 comments

holder

31.10.2006 22:02

Shit i just bought shares in them

share


and help sort it out...

01.11.2006 09:47

This tale is pretty disgusting, a clear case of cynical manipulation of a family to maximise corporate profit. It's been going on for years and it's about time someone took up their cause.

Now you're a shareholder you stand to benefit from the company's profits. But if you take the benefits you should take the responsibilities that go with them, and redressing the situation by restoring these people's boat and finding them acceptable moorings would go some way towards it. Write to the board as a shareholder and ask them why they don't feel any responsibility towards these people.

Clearly you weren't a shareholder when this first happened, but then neither was Dow Chemicals owner of a chemical plant in Bhopal when it blew up, yet few people would defend their decision not to clean up the mess.

then use your vote


holder

01.11.2006 12:16

Consider it done.

share


crest nicholson

03.11.2006 13:47

I have been following this saga for many years & I am still astonished that Crest Nicholson do not accept the responsibility they so clearly should take. This family chose an alternative lifestyle that perhaps did not 'fit' into the Crest Nicholson Marina's profile, so for that they were railroaded out of the Marina & their home of many years.

Due to this shameful behaviour I have berthed my motor boat at Cardiff Bay Yacht Club instead of the more convenient Penarth Marina & if I ever wanted shares in a company I would not consider Crest Nicholson.

I believe that they owe the family proper help in giving them accommodation to suit their choice & family needs, not necessarily provide them with a houseboat, but at least a home they can call their own.

My understanding is that Crest Nicholson own & is planning to build property on the 'billybanks' site, why cant they rehouse them in a property there? giving them full ownership as a way of admitting moral responsibility & compensating the family of all the hurt that Creest Nicholson have caused.

If this or something on similar lines was done I would then reconsider investing in Crest Nicholson Plc

Wishing the family all the very best

Jo
x

Joanne


What is the specific complaint here?

19.02.2007 15:41

I read the letter, but I can't quite determine what the family's grievance is, except that I guess they have been evicted from their houseboat, which I guess was moored at Penarth?

Surely this comes down to a simple issue of property rights. If the family owned the mooring and did not wish to leave, I do not see how Crest Nicholson could have forced them out. If they did not own the mooring, then I imagine they leased it? Leases can be determined lawfully, so how have CN acted improperly?

Please explain ??

Stuart Fairney
mail e-mail: stuart_fairney@yahoo.com


Penarth Heights Bear's Head Poo!

10.04.2007 11:34

As the Shalom Family campaign website is still going, it seems not too late to reply to your thread.

First and foremost, I suggest that if you are serious and moral minded, stop 'guessing' and read more!

The 'complaint' is the overall injustice of it all.

I think the above Family letter explains enough to direct any right-thinking individual, to put together the 'complaint' more in its entirety. It appears that a decent, long-standing Family Home was destroyed for no, good, moral reason, and an ordinary Family was trampled-on in the process! The fact is that Corporate Fascism hurts no less, even if it is undertaken by so-called, 'respectable' English Gentlemen!

The letter states:-

"John Callcutt CBE acted immorally whilst leading Crest Nicholson Plc. We also believe that in doing so, he may have deliberately misled you, your fellow directors and the Crest Nicholson organisation."

The 'complaint', as you so mildly put it, is about people (and Crest Nicholson Plc) who have done wrong, even if they act, or appear to be acting, within the UK Law, as it presently stands. The 'complaint' highlights how they got away with it, and in particular, how one man, John Callcutt CBE, still appears to have been rewarded by the establishment.. Surely, in this day and age, a CBE should be granted only to those with an impeccable history? Screwing a Family with kids is hardly a spotless C.V.!

One sure thing in life is that shi* happens in high places, and it appears to be the case here that there is nothing that anyone can do about it. But in the 'complaint', we should never forget that shi* floats to the top! Perhaps not quite as well as the Shalom Family houseboat, ever will again, but why, with this saga trundling on, is John Callcutt CBE, heading up the 'Callcutt Review' of UK Housebuilding Delivery at  http://www.callcuttreview.co.uk/default.jsp ?

If, as the Family suggest, that John Callcutt CBE likes pork pies, and he deliberately misrepresented the entire situation to the Crest Nicholson Board of Directors and, to avoid getting himself 'spanked', then the Board of Directors at Crest Nicholson, could forgive themselves, for acting so heavy-handed against this Family and their Home. Maybe, just maybe, they could even put it right for them. What about UK Government policy in the employment of Corporate bullies?

To answer your final remark, "how have CN acted improperly?", well, why not reverse it? Crest Nicholson could have acted properly by being entirely truthful. It was their mistake to have invited the Family and their home, with children, into the Penarth Marina in Wales. John Callcutt admitted so. Are we now supposed to believe that Crest Nicholson, Family and Community are words that should not be seen together?

It was Crest Nicholson and John Callcutt negligence that caused the Family home to become grounded on the marina floor in a nightime accident.

Crest could have granted the family permission to fix the onsuing leak, BEFORE insisting that the Family leave. John Callcutt CBE and Crest Nicholson clearly knew that in preventing the Family from fixing their home, (which would have ensured the Family's ability to move) time would overtake the situation and present a 'legitimate legal argument' for the houseboat removal - By refusing to grant permissions, Crest Nicholson forced the situation of no insurance, 'breach of contract', no moorings fees being paid, and trespass. That is another 'complaint'.

Crest could have been honourable in admitting their total mistakes and properly compensated the Family instead of orchestrating the situation to their own advantage, pooring scorn and ridicule on the Family in the process. As the family website shows, this is about Corporate beauty in cahoots with the Vale of Glamorgan Council, as 'together' in 'partnership' ,they develop the Crest Nicholson Penarth Heights project. at  http://www.valeofglamorgan.gov.uk/living/planning/planning_applications/penarth_heights.aspx

The 'complaint' is that Crest Nicholson, along with others, have acted dishonourably. Case dismissed! So far, the whole bloody lot of them are guilty.

Like I said, stop guessing, read more, think and ask genuine questions!

Vale of Glamorgan Resident