Open Letter of Appeal from The Shalom Family 

to 

Investors and Associations of Crest Nicholson Plc

21^st October 2005

October 28^th 2005 marks the 2^nd Anniversary of our Houseboat eviction from Penarth Marina, Wales. M V Picton was our only Home for 14 years. It was our property entirely. Especially for our children, houseboat living was our ‘way of life’. We accept it is over.

It was Crest Nicholson Marinas Limited, an erstwhile wholly owned subsidiary company of Crest Plc, who evicted us. That company was sold off by Crest Plc shortly after our eviction and now trades under the name of Quay Marinas Limited. 

The following letter is respectfully and openly addressed, in equal measure, to all the under mentioned institutions, and /or individuals, some, as registered, with United Kingdom Companies House, October 2005.

Crest Nicholson Plc and Their Associations/Advisors

Marcel Ospel UBS Bank Merchant Bankers to Crest Nicholson Plc, 

KPMG Audit Auditors to Crest Nicholson Plc, 

Linklaters Solicitors to Crest Nicholson Plc, 

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Brokers to Crest Nicholson Plc,

Royal Bank of Scotland, Bankers/Advisors to Crest Nicholson Plc,

Lloyds TSB Bank, Bankers/Advisors to Crest Nicholson Plc,

HSBC Bank, Bankers/Advisors to Crest Nicholson Plc,

Barclays Bank, Bankers/Advisors to Crest Nicholson Plc,

Allied Irish Banks, Bankers/Advisors to Crest Nicholson Plc,

Bank of Scotland, Bankers/Advisors to Crest Nicholson Plc,

National Bank of Egypt International, Bankers/Advisors to Crest Nicholson Plc,

Financial PR:  Brunswick Group Crest Nicholson Plc,

Crest Nicholson Major Shareholders

HERON INTERNATIONAL

HERON HOUSE 

19 MARYLEBONE ROAD

LONDON

NW1 5JL

GERALD RONSON, Director HERON INTERNATIONAL

DANIEL KITCHEN, Director HERON INTERNATIONAL

HBOS PLC

       THE MOUND      

EDINBURGH

EH1 1YZ

JAMES CROSBY, Director HBOS PLC

CHARLES DUNSTONE, Director HBOS PLC

SIR RONALD GARRICK, Director HBOS PLC

ANTHONY HOBSON, BA MBA FCA, Director HBOS PLC

PHILIP HODKINSON, Director HBOS PLC

ANDREW HORNBY, Director HBOS PLC

BRIAN IVORY, C.B.E. Director HBOS PLC

COLIN MATTHEW, Director HBOS PLC

COLINE MCCONVILLE, Director HBOS PLC

GEORGE MITCHELL, Director HBOS PLC

KATHLEEN NEALON, Director HBOS PLC

DAVID SHEARER, Director HBOS PLC

HENRY STEVENSON, CBE, LORD STEVENSON OF CODDENHAM, Director HBOS PLC

LLOYDS TSB GROUP PLC

HENRY DUNCAN HOUSE    

120 GEORGE STREET

EDINBURGH

EH2 4LH

DR WOLFGANG BERNDT, Director LLOYDS TSB GROUP PLC

EWAN BROWN, CBE. Director LLOYDS TSB GROUP PLC   

ERIC DANIELS, Director LLOYDS TSB GROUP PLC  

TERESA DIAL, Director LLOYDS TSB GROUP PLC 

JAN DU PLESSIS, Director LLOYDS TSB GROUP PLC

MICHAEL  FAIREY, Director LLOYDS TSB GROUP PLC

GAVIN GEMMELL, Director LLOYDS TSB GROUP PLC 

SIR JULIAN MICHAEL HORN-SMITH, MSC BSC (ECON) Director LLOYDS TSB GROUP PLC

DR DEANNE SHIRLEY JULIUS, Director LLOYDS TSB GROUP PLC

ARCHIBALD KANE, Director LLOYDS TSB GROUP PLC

ANGELA KNIGHT, Director LLOYDS TSB GROUP PLC

LORD ALEXANDER PARK LEITCH, Director LLOYDS TSB GROUP PLC

GEORGE TATE, Director LLOYDS TSB GROUP PLC

MAARTEN VAN DEN BERGH, Director LLOYDS TSB GROUP PLC

HELEN WEIR, Director LLOYDS TSB GROUP PLC

LEGAL & GENERAL GROUP PLC

TEMPLE COURT

11 QUEEN VICTORIA ST

LONDON

EC4N 4SB

CATHERINE ROSEMARY REID AVERY, Director LEGAL & GENERAL GROUP PLC

TIMOTHY JAMES BREEDON, Director LEGAL & GENERAL GROUP PLC

FRANCES ANNE MRS HEATON, Director LEGAL & GENERAL GROUP PLC

BEVERLEY CLIFFE HODSON, Director LEGAL & GENERAL GROUP PLC

ROBERT JOHN MARGETTS, CBE Director LEGAL & GENERAL GROUP PLC

JOHN BARRIE MORGANS, Director LEGAL & GENERAL GROUP PLC 

ANDREW WILLIAM PALMER, Director LEGAL & GENERAL GROUP PLC

ROBIN ASHLEY PHIPPS, Director LEGAL & GENERAL GROUP PLC

JOHN BRACKENRIDGE POLLOCK, Director LEGAL & GENERAL GROUP PLC

SIR DAVID JOHN PROSSER, Director LEGAL & GENERAL GROUP PLC

RONALDO HERMANN SCHMITZ, Director LEGAL & GENERAL GROUP PLC

HENRY ERIC STAUNTON, Director LEGAL & GENERAL GROUP PLC

JAMES MURRAY STRACHAN, Director LEGAL & GENERAL GROUP PLC

DAVID ALAN SIR WALKER, Director LEGAL & GENERAL GROUP PLC

VALE OF GLAMORGAN COUNCIL

CIVIC OFFICES

HOLTON ROAD

BARRY

VALE OF GLAMORGAN

WALES

JEFFREY JAMES Executive Leader of the Vale of Glamorgan Council

QUAY MARINAS LIMITED

AVON HOUSE

STOKE GIFFORD

BRISTOL

AVON

SIMON HAIGH Quay Marinas Limited

ANDREW YATES Quay Marinas Limited

PAUL RYE Quay Marinas Limited

 Investors and Associations of Crest Nicholson Plc

 Open Letter of Appeal from The Shalom Family

21^st 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 28^th 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 2^nd 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

The Shalom Family Campaign for Social Justice

Wales

Tel/Fax 02920 236074

Mobile 07713 954355

Email wwwnoahsark@aol.com

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