I do believe it is relevant as you may well do also if you were properly informed and had taken the time to research the facts.

This certainly not a war, battle, or even a minor skirmish, however, there are many more than me who can see the truth and would not wish their colleagues in the MV scene to be ill-informed

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Acording to the imps web site the agreement with war and peace was/is
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This is out of date but still relevant to an extent, I would direct your reading to the IMPS minutes over the last 18 months and the actual binding contract properly conveyed between W&P Ltd and IMPS.

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" War and Peace Limited (set up by Rex and Brent Pollard -club member and the owner of the Hop Farm) and the IMPS would continue, risk free, to benefit financially from the show with a guaranteed revenue - come rain or shine"
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So, perhaps you could tell us how the legal contract now stands since W&P Ltd ceases to exist and the position it leaves IMPS in ?

Are you aware that the directors of W&P Ltd tried to wind-up W&P Ltd last year without any reference to IMPS because as they stated they "forgot"?

You should also be aware, and would know if you were properly informed, that the IMPS member you refer to above resigned some considerable time ago, almost a year now I think and maybe more, by physically throwing his documentation at the chairman, as they record.

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If that has changed then it makes a difference (although not much of a difference to a non imps member).
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To someone who is concerned with honourable practice generally and fair practice specifically for the larger MV movement it makes a huge difference and indicates perhaps the mind-set of the people you have to deal with.

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You still seem to be suffering from "show envy" are you not confident enough in your own product ?
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This is incorrect as I have previously stated and you have heard from others similarly. I consider this to be an unacceptable personal slight and besmirchment.

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On an issue far more important to beltring goers, this is the part of the reply I got from Rex Cadman asking for better shower and toilet facilities.
"To answer you, firstly the War and Peace Show is the only Show at the Hop Farm that uses all the facilities to the full. >Secondly Mid Kent Water have provided the maximum pressure >we can have and thirdly we are restricted on the amount of >waste we can shift.
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For which you pay £25 to enter and another £25 to take a support vehicle.

Is this not an admission of wholly inadequate and unsafe "facilities" ?

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This said we are fully aware of the issues in respect of the toilets and showers. With this knowledge to hand there are considerable improvements being carried out this at time of writing.
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This has been said before, fine words but time will tell.

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In respect of the extra toilets we hire in we were appalled as I am sure you were by the dreadful state and poor lack of maintenance we received from last years suppliers, who will not be resupplying in 2004. A great deal of effort has gone into finding a suitable, trustworthy toilet supplier at a great deal of cost, which we believe will considerably improve the
situation. This said it did not stop some person stealing two of last years blue boxes! A further eight were vandalised beyond acceptable wear and tear, these we were billed for none of which makes this very difficult area any easier.
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I believe if you research this you will find the contractor has been unchanged for many years and has been a continual source of complaint, have you considered why this contractor has been used year in and year out ?

Since the show was run by a commercial limited company what redress or compensation have you asked for or been offered against the "facility fee" you have paid out for and plainly not received?

Do let us know.

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We very much appreciate your support and hope in 2004 that you feel we have corrected this problem in a satisfactory manner.
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We shall see.

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I'll be there to check it out!.
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And perhaps some others too, although all the people I trust and respect for considered, objective judgement will not be there as far as I know.

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In fact what I'm trying to say Mr Mcstolly is please stop griping about Beltring and give us all more information about your own show. (people are more likely to choose your show over beltring if they hear good things about your's, rather that bad things about beltring-paticularly from the organiser of the rival show)
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I do believe there are several valid and cogent gripes; the chicanery and apparent disposal of IMPS as the contract holder and the relieving of people's show-making money for no return as just two.

I do believe if your electricity, gas, phone, internet or whatever provider, had taken these sums of money from you for the same level of parlous and unacceptable facility provision, you would be griping long and hard whilst pursuing them keenly for some recompense. Do you deny this ?

I find your attitude congruent with that of the US Govt at their entry into WWII, to keep to your invented "war" theme, in respect of their fixed attitude towards that nice Uncle Joe Stalin and the conviction that Erwin Rommel and the DAK was a beaten and spent force. They were gravely mistaken.

Firstly it is not "my" show as I have told you. Overlord is run by the committee and members of the Solent Area MVT, my part is just to make the necessary arrangements and co-ordinate and direct that effort as the Show Secretary.

We have released the details and I can tell you there are no charges whatsoever for entrants, we provide over 30 toilets for a show well under one quarter the size of a claimed Beltring and 40cu metres of rubbish collection. There is a six bay shower unit on site and the beer tent entertainment is free, not by paid ticket entry. Eight mains taps are provided around the site and stall holders pay just £3/ft for 25ft deep pitches.

We do not provide blue tank car crushing spectacles or take money from a noisy and intrusive helicopter ride concession. We do not hand out pages of glossy and expensive bumf but every entrant gets the now established and customary polished and printed slate coaster which costs me hours in personal artwork effort and the Area something like a half a gallon of UK petrol to give away as a token of our appreciation, plus this year a facsimile of The Stars and Stripes wartime paper as a show guide.

The SMVT can correctly be described as MV enthusiasts and we are a charity, not a for-profit business. I do not wish anyone to choose any one show over any other; here again you have digressed at a tangent to what you have been clearly told by me and others. I do desire though that people have all the facts and comprehension to make considered, reasoned and rational judgements.

In diffidence to my good friend and the provider of these facilities I shall therefore curtail this Sisyphean task with you since it is obviously a wholly nugatory effort.

R.