As you may know, the Department for Transport (DfT) is proposing to reduce the number of categories of HGV that are exempt from testing. The details of these proposals are at www.dft.gov.uk. IMPS, along with the MVT and the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs (FBVHC) were invited to send representatives to the DfT for a meeting on 31 March 2010. The summary of the meeting is as follows:
· The basic premise the DfT is following is “if it looks like an HGV it gets tested like an HGV”. The DfT made it absolutely clear that there is no room for manoeuvre on this point! However there is no intention to remove the pre-1960 exemption. The FBVHC is considering lobbying on moving the 1960 date to a rolling date although this needs to be done at European level and may take some time.
· The good news is that there seems to be no appetite for testing wheeled armour. There is an acceptance that these should not be tested as HGV’s. It is unclear how they will be exempted. It is also possible that some very heavy and awkward vehicles may escape although this looks unlikely.
· The removal of exemptions will not be implemented quickly. The next step will be an invitation to comment on a “summary of responses to the consultation” probably in the autumn. The apparent delay is because there are other higher priority matters for incoming ministers to deal with. (There will be new ministers at the DfT whatever the outcome of the election!). Once the summary appears the IMPS and the MVT will then get the opportunity to comment again.
A meeting is proposed with Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) and the DfT to discuss HGV Testing and the practical problems historic vehicles can cause. IMPS and the MVT are therefore asking any members who have had their vehicle tested at VOSA stations to inform them of any problems that occurred?
Send brief details and contact information in writing to James Baxter at either jac.baxter@virgin.net or by post to:
6 Clayton
Mead
Godstone
Surrey
RH9 8NX
1. If you own a post-1960 HGV (all pre-1960 HGVs are exempt, and it is not proposed to withdraw this), then it must go through an HGV test, unless it falls into one of the test exempt categories. This list of exemptions is being reviewed, and the DfT is proposing to withdraw some of those exemption categories.
2. The DfT has issued a consultation document, which can be accessed at the website:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/open/mottestingexemptions/consultation.pdf
. This shows the full list of current exemptions, and those planned to be withdrawn. There are few exempt categories that would apply to Military Vehicles. If, however, you believe you own an exempt vehicle, then it is recommended you check the website to confirm the current and proposed position. If you consider your vehicle is exempt, and that the category under which it is covered is being considered for withdrawal, then you can put a submission to the DfT stating why you believe it should remain exempt, via the website (or by letter).
3. The Invicta Military Preservation Society (IMPS) and the Military Vehicle Trust (MVT) are already working with the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs (FBHVC) to put submissions to the DfT, on behalf of MV owners, which particularly address:
- concerns of HGV owners, who may now have to have their vehicle tested, about access to testing stations, potentially prohibitive cost of tests, etc.
- ensuring that HGV testing of historic vehicles takes account of their design and construction at the time they were built (similar to the ordinary MoT test), so that there are not requirements to have HGVs 'upgraded' to include modern criteria, and that HGV MoT testers are properly aware of the nature of historic vehicles and apply a standard set of rules across all testing stations, but always recognising the importance of road safety.
- mitigating as much as possible the administrative impact of HGV testing for historic vehicles, such as access to testing stations; making inspectors available to inspect vehicles on site, where access to testing stations is impractical; keeping costs down, etc, but again recognising the importance of road safety.
- promoting to the DfT the responsibility of MV owners of exempt vehicles to ensure that their vehicles are safe and roadworthy, and do not use the exemption to put unsafe vehicles onto the public highway.
As a responsible
historic vehicle clubs IMPS and MVT support efforts to improve road safety.
Our role is to try to promote a balance in legislation that properly reflects
both road safety and the technical aspects of historic vehicles, as well
as ensuring that, where possible, the membership is aware of their legal
obligations.
The monthly club night has
moved to a new venue.
Every 1st Thursday of the month at 8pm.
The Glentworth Club, Lowfield Street, Dartford.
Please do come along and enjoy club nights!
.
Anna
Walker and her Hawker Hurricane are coming to Combined Ops next year.
She will be basing the aircraft at Headcorn and will be displaying during
the show. This is a real coup, as there are few Hurricanes flying, and
Anna is the only woman to fly a Hurricane since 1945. Anna Walker is a
commercial pilot and has been flying for over 30 years.
She was introduced to flying by her father in her native Brazil. At the
age of thirteen she started gliding and moved on to power-flying as a
tug pilot.
Joined the famous Tiger Club at Redhill in 1988 where she underwent formation
and aerobatic training. Started taking part in aerobatic competitions
in 1992 in her Bücker Jungmann, winning 3 out of every 4 competitions
entered. This led on to display flying in 1993 and Anna now regularly
displays, in addition to her own Bücker, a Beech Staggerwing which
belongs to the Fighter Collection based at Duxford. Also flies the Aircraft
Restoration Company Harvard T6G and the Scandinavian Historic Flight Mustang
P51D. For the 2009 season Anna will be displaying the Historic Aircraft
Collection Hawker Hurricane. She is possibly the first woman pilot to
fly this type since 1945 when the ATA girls used to ferry them.
Holds a French Mountain Flying licence and lands her ski equipped Piper
Super Cub on glaciers in the Alps.
In 2001 Anna founded Skytricks, an aerial advertising business based in
England. Working with a team of select performers and exciting aeroplanes,
the company runs sponsored aeroplanes for advertising and corporate entertainment.
Skytricks also provides banner towing, stunt flying /aerial film coordination
and air-to-air photography.
We are delighted that
Anna will join us and Rob Davis's Mustang and other classic warbirds at
Combined Ops on 14th and 15th August 2010.
The IMPS annual tour to Bethune had a slightly more significant slant to it this year, as it is the 65th Anniversary of the Liberation of that lovely city, and the 20th year of IMPS ‘Bethune’ tours, as they have become known. The municipality of Bethune once again invited IMPS to take part in their liberation celebrations, and more importantly, to represent their Liberators, the British Army in the form of the 7th Armoured Division – the famous Desert Rats.
…and what a commemoration it was. This was probably the best Bethune tour we have had for some years. That is not only my opinion, but that of a number of the IMPS members who took the time to talk to me towards the end of the week end. No doubt the weather, hot and sunny, after a very wet and stormy week, contributed to the feel good factor. That was, however, only one contributing element. The real reasons for the success this year, I believe, include a less stressful drive from Calais, with an arrival at the campsite by mid afternoon, rather than well into the evening, which gave the participants time to set up camp, and relax a little, before the evening entertainments, which included a 40s dance at the Sports Centre. This was particularly appreciated as many of those who travelled from England on Thursday and who were severely delayed by the very bad weather in the Channel. This had resulted in late arrivals at Calais, and consequent shorter nights sleep for some. A long and tiring drive on Friday would not have been popular, so the long lunch stop at Gonnenheim (and excellent lunch provided by the town), followed by a short run to the campsite at Annezin was most welcome.
The camping site itself was very pleasant, being the fields of a sports complex on the edge of town, overlooking countryside, but with a delightful formal garden alongside the sports grounds. Hot showers, toilets and electricity were laid on, albeit the power was not available completely throughout the site. Nevertheless the location was considered a significant improvement on last year.
The Saturday drive out around the local village was a pleasure, with many local people coming out to greet us, and once again, not too much driving, which can be stressful for drivers, particularly in the heat. Hence this year’s tours was more relaxed than in the past, and hence more pleasurable. A further 40s dance in the town square, and a magnificent firework display from the Tour du Roi, rounded off the day well, along with some good food from the excellent restaurants around the square.
Having said that, I think the real factors that made this year’s trip particularly good were the wonderful welcome we received from the towns and villages we visited on our convoy runs, with the inhabitants coming to their doors and windows, and gardens and streets, to waive to us and make us feel that they were happy to see us. This welcome, and the fact that we were once again back in Bethune Square for the parade on Sunday, really made the tour worthwhile. This is not in any way to denigrate the municipality of Souchez, who had taken on the responsibility of hosting the Liberation commemorations when Bethune had been unable to do so, and we in IMPS will always appreciate the hospitality we received there in the past. Nevertheless it has always been the ‘Bethune trip’ for IMPS and it was good to be back in the main square with its splendid architecture, and magnificent town hall. The Sunday Parade through the town, past the dais with the dignitaries, and Richard Beddall excellent commentary on the vehicles, in French, and the drive around the square to park in the middle, was once again the highlight of the trip. The Parade was interspersed with bands, including Scottish Pipe, Belgian Police and Bellorusse military, and this year, once again, IMPS managed to come up with a good variety of tanks, armoured cars and other vehicles, many British and Canadian, which are rarely seen in France, all of which, including the tanks, paraded through the streets, past the Mayor and into the square. It was good to see again the crowds of people lining the streets to watch the parade, and then coming into the square to photograph the vehicles and meet and talk to the drivers.
The Bourse in the underground car park was back again, this year, with many IMPS members having a good rummage around for bargains, although with the value of the Euro, bargains were no doubt difficult to find.
In the afternoon there was an excellent band concert in the square which attracted large crowds, and was clearly well appreciated.
Unfortunately the trip was slightly marred by the IMPS group leader, Tony Lawrence, falling ill on Friday, and having to visit hospital twice over the week end, before returning home early to have kidney stones removed.
Nevertheless, Tony Lawrence’s unfortunate illness aside, somehow the combination of all the factors referred to seemed to create the right ingredients for probably one of the Bethune Liberation tours we have had. What more could one ask.
Finally I must thank the Mayor and Municipality of Bethune for their Hospitality, and Bernard and Gregory for their excellent organisation
James Baxter
President IMPS
(Photos of the tour and parade
can be found here)
Chelsea
Hospital London – Sevenoaks, Kent
Sunday March 15th 2009
Organised by IMPS President,Jim Baxter, this was a very special event.
The convoy was waved off by actor Chris Barrie ( who owns a bedofrd QL
amongst his collection of historic vehicles) who joined us for the convoy
run.
Veteran cars,
historic army lorries and AA road patrols combined to commemorating the
100th Anniversary of the first occasion that troops were carried en mass
by Motor Transport
On the 17th March (St. Patrick’s Day) 1909 members of the Automobile
Association (now known as the AA) carried a composite company of Guardsmen
from London 60 miles to Hastings in their motor cars. This was an exercise
organised by the Automobile Association in conjunction with the War Office
(forerunner of the Ministry of Defence) to both raise the Government’s
awareness that motorists are responsible people, and to test the viability
of moving troops in large numbers by motor transport.
We raised £175 for Combat Stress on the day.
John Blackman's photos- Click
Here
More details Click Here
IMPS and Headorn Aerodrome have joined forces
to present COMBINED OPS - an exciting military weekend
with classic aircraft at the historic World War Two Advanced Landing Ground
of Lashenden Airfield, now operated as Headcorn Aerodrome, in Kent.
This major new event welcomes all military vehicles and is open to IMPS
members and non members.
Full details and entry forms - Click
Here
After several years in Dartford, the monthly
club night has moved to a new venue.
Every 1st Thursday of the month at 8pm.
The Glentworth Club, Lowfield Street, Dartford.
Please do come along and enjoy club nights!
.
Our current (revised 2009) Constitution can be viewed here
To help IMPS keep our website up to date, you can now upload rally reports and news items with pictures for our News Section and also photos for our Members Vehicles Gallery.
So for example, if you get home from an event
on Sunday evening, as you download the pictures from your digital camera,
you can spend a few minutes to share some pictures and some words with
other IMPS members and of course the rest of the military vehicle world.Images
must be JPEGs and a maximum size of 1.5mb – preferably in 72 resolution.
You must include a valid E Mail address and of course be a club member.
Upload your pictures
it was certainly a wet weekend, but it didn't dampen our spirits - 2008 event
Some information
can now be obtained for softskin vehicles - the service costs £25.
Royal Logistic Corps Museum
Princess Royal Barracks
Deepcut
Camberley
Surrey
GU16 6RW
Tel 01252 833371
Include as much information you have on your vehicle, i.e. chassis number etc
War and Peace 2007 is finally over, thank God, I hear you say! As I read some of last year’s articles it bought a smile to my face as I noticed that the first comments started off with the following: “We enjoyed 5 days of unparralled superb weather that turned The Hop Farm into a local version of the Sahara Desert”. After this year’s event, I was beginning to think that our luck had finally run out as the Hop Farm became the Somme. The last time War and Peace experienced rain at this level was in 1988 when the event was organised by Bruce Hoad and Bob Skinner. Vehicle movement was absolutely minimal with just over 100 vehicles in attendance, some 20+ stalls, and I seem to remember Dick Pettman relieved my brother and I of a fair few bob for Jeeparts. The beer tent was the main winner of the weekend. I can recall one vehicle owner who drank so much that he was unable to walk back to his vehicle and crawled all the way!! Much to the amusement of those camped around him.
The thing that never seems to amaze me is that no matter what the weather, The Hop Farm takes a pounding and always recovers extremely quickly. We have all seen The Hop Farm return to normal after the dust bowl and this year we are witnessing that same miraculous return to normal after the mud. For those of you who had left by Monday night the rain arrived again around about midday and stopped Tuesday morning. The streams burst their banks and the only way to access the shower block was by canoe. As you can imagine the model tent was flooded from one end to the other right through to the end of Ginger Gammon’s Bar. Looking at this on the Tuesday morning we realised how lucky we had been.
Regardless of the weather, the clean up crew ripped into their tasks and by Friday the 27th the site was pretty well clear, just those few remaining tanks to be low loaded home, as is always the case.
As all of you are aware The Hop Farm now has a new partner. The immediate feedback from Peter Bull was how impressed he had been by the size of the show and the efficiency with which it was managed.
You may remember that Simon Hume-Kendall joined us for the first time last year and this year really got into the spirit of things. On the occasions that our paths crossed Simon was full of support for all that he saw and on one occasion asked me to convey his thanks and appreciation for all that the officials were doing. He was greatly impressed by the professionalism of the War and Peace Team and the manner in which we interacted with the Hop Farm staff.
The 25th anniversary KM War and Peace Show 2007, despite the rain and mud, seems to have been declared by all who attended the best show to date. Judging from the amount of complimentary emails and the usual handful of complaints this was the general gist of the feedback. The Hop Farm team reported that public attendance was up 10% despite the weather. Imagine where we would have ended up if we had enjoyed our usual sunny weather. We have responded to a quantity of questionnaires, the main focus of complaints would appear to be around quad bikes and minimotos in the public camping area. Generally it was felt that the officials handled the situation extremely well on the rest of the show site especially in the extreme conditions. For those that became aware, Malcolm’s handling of the lost child was virtually text book, the only downside being the over-reaction of the mother’s boyfriend. A great many compliments on the new security aspect on the bars especially with the Berlin wall around Ginger Gammon’s. Many felt that if the rains hadn’t arrived this would have made a great social area of an evening time.
The new evening entertainment in Ginger’s Bar with a band each night went down a storm. All of the bands received good feedback and we will be rebooking for 2008. The DJ, Gypsy John, played some great music aimed at an adult audience as this is who we are really catering for although I noticed a lot of youngsters still enjoying it.
This year we seem to have attracted far more public attention than ever before. The fireworks on the launch night caused a bit of friction with the locals which the local Courier newspaper chose to make the most out of. This was then followed by the mud on the road at the end of the show which caused the closure of the A228 further enraging locals. We have had several written complaints from local residents, all of which we have responded to. At the same time we have also received some positive comments telling us to ignore the wingers. I myself met one of the complainants on the Sunday evening who had some justifiable comments to make whilst at the same time letting me know that her and her husband had a guest cottage to rent for next year’s War and Peace should it be needed.
You may remember that the major issue from last year was the invasion of unofficial unwanted locals who drank far too much in the beer tents and then created problems throughout the night. As you were aware we had a plan which we instigated with the Berlin wall and security. The local youth responded by failing to appear. Regardless of their lack of appearance we are of the opinion that the security and Berlin wall shall remain. They may well return in 2008.
Regardless of the weather the show was so successful we have returned to the office knackered but still full of enthusiasm for 2008 and are busily planning working towards making the 26th annual show as special as the 25th . One possible fly in the ointment was the appearance of John Sweeney of BBC fame after his row with the scientologists. The BBC were producing a documentary on re-enactors focusing on the Germans. I enjoyed a 90 minute interview with John Sweeney whilst driving around the site. As you can imagine he asked some quite searching questions, one of which was, is Kent a vipers nest of Nazism? With questions like this it was quite apparent that his programme will probably be aimed at sensationalism. Having now had the chance to watch the programme I am of the opinion that he raised some fair issues which we will be seriously looking at for future shows. The comments made in the beer tent are not acceptable at The War and Peace Show.
It has always been our intention to produce a 25th Anniversary book of War and Peace and with this in mind, we are still very keen to locate any photographs of the very early shows at Tenterten and early Beltring, 1987-90. I would like to thank Nigel Hay, Dale Johnson and Tony Lawrence for the material they have already sent. We have also employed an author by the name of Peter Cook who is fairly instrumental in producing the content of the War and Peace programme and is therefore known to some of you. He will be contacting IMPS members to gain their insight into the shows in which they have been involved in. Any help you can give in sourcing material, articles and photographs would be appreciated and we will make sure the originals are returned safely to their owners. Alternatively, you can scan them in and email them to us at rex@warandpeace.uk.com with whatever information you have.
This year, as in previous years, the input
of officials was more important than ever. No matter what the motivation
the support was excellent, with more and more family members pitching
in making it truly a family show. As each month passed, the meetings grew
and grew as officials took on their responsibilities. A special thank
you must go to Keiron and Danny who both stepped in at short notice to
help with living history and public camping. I am still a firm believer
that the major reason for all the support is the cooked breakfasts, for
which we need to thank predominantly Rory and Pauline and those that assisted.
This army certainly marches on its stomach.
2007 truly underpinned for all of us the knowledge that a real War and
Peace team exists, which this year you clearly demonstrated with the cards
and gifts you presented to Barbara and I in the officials mess tent. I
was lost for words. These gifts now have a special place in my study and
will remain a life time reminder of the companionship and pleasure I have
gained from all of your company.
You may remember from 2006 one of the big complaints from exhibitors was the lack of space. Bert promised to remedy this and to his credit, Outer Monkton’s was created which this year we filled. I gather from Malcolm that this was an extremely popular area and well received. The big problem for us now will be making sure we have all the appropriate facilities in this area for next year. Should the show grow again we do have another field standing by.
The world now knows that War and Peace is,
in the words of Classic Military Vehicle Magazine, “the greatest
show on the planet” and the 25th anniversary show has done no more
than to underpin that statement. For those of you who are not aware, other
than being the biggest military spectacular in the world, War and Peace
is also the largest event in the county of Kent. None of which would have
been possible without the continued support of IMPS members and the military
vehicle enthusiasts world wide.
We look forward to welcoming you back to the Hop Farm for the 26th annual
War and Peace Show on 16th-20th July 2008.