On behalf of the Shalom Family Campaign for Social Justice, (his wife and five daughters!) Vince Shalom travelled the 400 miles or so from South Wales, to present a letter of appeal for help, directly to Crest Nicholson’s ‘institutional investors’, Lloyds TSB Group Plc. The appeal, which is self explanatory, was addressed and directed to the following individuals as listed with Companies House:-

The Directors

Eric Daniels, Dr. Wolfgang Bernt, Ewan Brown CBE, Teresa Dial, Jan Du Plessis, Michael Fairey, Gavin Gemmell, Sir Julian Michael Horn-Smith MSC BSC (ECON), Dr. Deanne Shirley Julius, Archibald Kane, Angela Knight, Lord Alexander Park Leitch, George Tate, Maarten Van Den Bergh, Helen Weir.

LLOYDS TSB GROUP PLC
HENRY DUNCAN HOUSE
120 GEORGE STREET
EDINBURGH
EH2 4LH

Open Letter of Appeal from The Shalom Family

First Published to The World Wide Internet at  http://www.mvpicton.co.uk

21st October 2005


Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

With reference to the above and in view of your noted association, either directly or indirectly, we humbly implore you to take notice and help us in our Family Campaign for Social Justice, from property developer and house builder, Crest Nicholson Plc based at Crest House, Thames Street, Weybridge, Surrey, England.

On October 28th 2005 both of us and our five daughters will commemorate the second anniversary of being evicted from our own Home of 14 years, our Houseboat, which was our property.

We were evicted from ‘MV Picton’ by Crest Nicholson Marinas Limited, an erstwhile subsidiary company of Crest Plc. We have been made Homeless.

We have also lost everything that we owned in our Home, personal belongings, effects, Home contents, etc. Even our children’s 7 pet goldfish were seized. Everything about our Home is still presently lost. We believe we have done nothing wrong.

We kindly invite you to see the full file and account of all our dealings with Crest Plc and/or their former subsidiary company, Crest Nicholson Marinas Limited.

Legal issues aside, we believe that the full documented accounts will show that Crest Nicholson Plc is morally responsible for causing everything which has happened to us, including our present ‘Homeless’ state. Upon your own diligent enquiry we respectfully hope that you will accept our invitation, to urge Crest Nicholson Plc to reconsider this case on moral grounds.

We kindly draw to your attention a few brief facts, undisputed by Crest Nicholson.

Crest freely invited us, (and we accepted) to live with our young Family, in our own houseboat Home M V Picton, in Penarth Marina, Cardiff Bay, Wales, UK, in January 1997. This was after our meticulous enquiry of many years, (our first enquiry was in 1989), as to the suitability of Penarth Marina providing a berth for our “houseboat”.

On April 2nd 2000 Crest Nicholson Marinas Limited caused a terrifying night time accident to our Home whilst our children were asleep in bed. Marie Louise was also eight months pregnant. Our Houseboat was permitted to become grounded on the marina floor and toppled into the marina pontoons in an uncontrolled manner. It weighed between 33-40 tonnes and it took a heavy, side and bottom impact. Our Home subsequently developed a leak.

We acted with all due diligence to mitigate the loss of that accident and made every effort possible to repair the leak.

Crest Nicholson willfully obstructed us in the sense that they failed to grant permissions, subsequent to that accident, for us to perform what we considered our moral duty; to get our Home repaired - to lift out the boat, fix the leak, and to obtain minimum insurance cover, a minimum condition of all marina contracts.

Crest Nicholson deliberately failed to grant us permission, for us to send down survey-divers, subsequent to the accident they caused.

Crest Nicholson deliberately failed to grant us permission, subsequent to that accident, to haul the vessel at site onto a purpose built Emergency Lift-Out Pad, a lifting area on land adjacent to the marina, which was already established as ‘safe and suitable’, for the type and weight of the vessel. This emergency lift-out pad had been earlier employed by the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI), for the ‘lifting-out’, of the Barry Dock Lifeboat. This was at a time when Mr Peter Nicholson, Vice Chair of the RNLI was a serving director with Crest Nicholson Plc.

Crest Nicholson knew our Home was leaking, taking on water and yet still ignored our requests.

After we had been invited to set up Home, with our firm career choices and commitments clearly declared, and after the accident which Crest Nicholson caused to our Home, Crest Nicholson decidedly changed policy, regarding houseboats in their national marina operations.

John Callcutt Chief Executive Officer of Crest Nicholson, solely responsible for enforcing health & safety in the Crest Group at the time of the accident, wrote to us expressing that his company was “wrong” to have let our Family and our Home into the marina. He admits that his organisation made a mistake.

Crest Nicholson happily accepted all our mooring fees, which were always paid promptly, until such time as they wanted us to leave, returning fees which we had paid, on no less than three occasions.

Crest Nicholson failed, at the highest level, to accept our repeated invitations to enter into any Alternative Dispute Resolution talks.

We believe the matter has been dealt with in a most brutal and heavy handed manner and by our clear losses to date, we believe we have already suffered most undeservedly. To lose our own Family Home and our beautiful way of life is difficult enough to bear but to lose our personal private possessions, in the way that we have, really is quite unbearable.

By association we believe this matter may reflect poorly upon your good selves or upon your respective institutions and we very much regret these events. In the circumstances, we are moved to act in all due regard to our moral conscience. We believe that with our five daughters, we have been shown very little, in terms of ‘respect’ for Family, Home, and Way of Life.

Accordingly, we would be very grateful if you would respond to this appeal with good purpose. Please encourage Crest Nicholson to review this case. If you should have any questions or comments, please contact us immediately.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,


Yours sincerely,



Vincent & Marie Louise Shalom

Letter Ends
--------------------

It has since come to the attention of The Shalom Family Campaign for Social Justice that on this same day, whilst Vince was in Edinburgh… 27th October 2005, asking Lloyds TSB Group Plc for help, Crest Nicholson Plc received the following ‘notification’.

It reads as follows:-

Crest Nicholson Regulatory News Announcement
Crest Nicholson PLC - Holding(s) in Company
RNS Number:2787T
Crest Nicholson PLC
27 October 2005

Crest Nicholson Plc ('the Company')

The Company was notified today that Lloyds TSB Group Plc and its subsidiaries no longer hold a notifiable interest in the Company.

This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

See link for detail:
 http://miranda.hemscott.com/servlet/HsPublic?context=ir.access&ir_option=RNS_NEWS&item=30462055698854&ir_client_id=216

----------------------------------------------
Crest Nicholson Plc are reported to be a strong company, "worth holding" with valuable land banks, but the accuracy of their land bank account keeping, has already been called into question by the Shaloms. The Family were caught up in a 'catch 22' eviction process which also revealed a dispute of land ownership between Cardiff Harbour Authority, owned and controlled by Cardiff County Council, and Crest Nicholson Marinas Limited, the former subsidiary marina company of Crest Plc.

Apart from the news that Lloyds TSB Group Plc have dropped their Crest Nicholson Shares, the Family will continue to appeal for help from Lloyds TSB.

Lloyds TSB backed the Crest Nicholson Marinas Limited, marina management buy-out, from Crest Nicholson Plc in July 2004. This takeover took place just three months after the 3.00am night-time ‘seizure’ operation of the Family Home of 14 years. The Family have long invited Lloyds TSB to become aware of this situation. Recent events may suggest that this is perhaps the first indication that Lloyds TSB are listening to the Family cause, or wish to help.

The Family believe that Lloyds TSB may still be able to persuade their client and new marina owners, Simon Haigh and Andrew Yates of Quay Marinas Limited, to find a ‘Fair’ and ‘Just’ solution for this Family in their Campaign for Social Justice.

Quay Marinas Limited based at Avon House, Bristol Parkway North, Newbrick Road Bristol, are the effective ‘continuation’ of the old marina business. The same people run what is effectively the same marina operation but just under a new name and face. Accordingly, the Family believe that these people hold the key to the whereabouts and security of their entire Family personal possessions.


Contacts:

The Shalom Family Campaign for Justice via website
www.mvpicton.co.uk

LLOYDS TSB GROUP PLC
HENRY DUNCAN HOUSE
120 GEORGE STREET
EDINBURGH
EH2 4LH
-----------
Crest Nicholson Plc
Crest House
Thames Street
Weybridge
Surrey
England

Tel 01932 847272
Fax 01932 840150
------------------
Simon Haigh and Andrew Yates at Quays Marinas
Quay Marinas Ltd
Avon House
Newbrick Road
Stoke Gifford
Bristol
BS34 8RA

Tel 01179 236466
Fax 01179 236508

Email  shaigh@quaymarinas.com,  prye@quaymarinas.com or  ayates@quaymarinas.com
--------------------

Other indy media news links articles:-


Crest Nicholson Plc Evicted Houseboat Family Open Letter of Appeal
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/london/2005/10/326210.html

Halifax (Bank of Scotland) and Lloyds TSB Bank Targeted at Guildford
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/10/325211.html

Protest at Centre Parcs Director John Matthews/ Chairman of both Crest Plc, Regus Plc, and director at Diploma plc, SDL plc and Rotork plc.
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/westcountry/2005/08/320790.html

Family Petition HRH Prince Charles Business In The Community
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/318335.html

Schroders London Boat Show Protest
 https://www1.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/01/304204.html

Claridge’s Protest London
 https://www1.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/04/308474.html

Crest Nicholson AGM Protest at the Runnymede Hotel and Spa Surrey
 https://www4.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/04/309486.html

HBOS Protest National Boat Caravan and Out Show NEC Birmingham
 https://www1.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/world/2005/03/307747.html

Various Photo Story Board links:- Broadband advised for slide shows.
 http://aol.photobox.co.uk/public/customer.html?customer=191568

END.