Chapuis wrote:
Mick I never saw any thing about this in the national press but just did a quick internet search and it came up with the story reported in a local Surrey newspaper and a statement put out by the NRA. The amounts mentioned as paid by the NRA in legal fees with regard to the re-negotiation of the leases for various clubs at Bisley is absolutely astounding, far more than I could ever have imagined and makes me now believe that what I was told about the Artists club is actually totally credible, (previously I was slightly dubious). As is often the case the only ones who seem to have benefited from this whole affair are the lawyers.
As you say it is possible that this could have been resolved much earlier and without the need to resort to the courts if all the parties involved had entered into meaningful negotiation at an early stage.
It was in The Times, the Artists made plenty of play regarding the SAS connection which if you wanted the publicity was the way to go, even though that connection is a rather tenuous one these days.
The problem apparently started when an agreement was struck with a previous NRA employee who then left and none of the paper work could be found, enter then Mr Mercer who is looking at things with a new hat on rather than the nod & wink of yesteryears NRA way of doing things.
I believe the huge costings were due in part to test the legality of who actually owned some of the buildings which were paid for by subscriptions and donations by the now long dead volunteer force.
A can of worms on both sides of the argument, although I do have a lot of sympathy for the Artists who do a cracking good job on camp.
So good I'm having lunch in there tomorrow!
