NARPO House, 38 Bond Street, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, WF1 2QP
Tel: 01924.362166 Fax: 01924 372088
BRANCH CIRCULAR 37/11
To: All Branch Secretaries
NEC Members
21.11.11
Dear Colleague,
Thanks to a kind offer from Lord Wolf of Barleugh and his family, NARPO have access to two of the family villas for an initial period up to September 2013.
Villa Endymion is situated in Bloemendaal a pretty town on the outskirts of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
Villa Scylla is situated in the suburbs of Lavena Ponte Tresa directly on Lake Lugarno, Italy near to its border with Switzerland.
The villas will be managed on a day to day basis through a charitable trust the Endymion Preservation Society (EPS). NARPO have agreed to manage the booking process to enable our members to take advantage of this generous offer. Access to the villas will be free to NARPO members and their party and neither EPS nor NARPO are making any charge for either the access to the properties or the administration of the booking process.
Costs of the travel arrangements to and from the villas will of course be members’ responsibility. It will also be members’ responsibility to ensure that they have adequate travel insurance to cover, in particular, for medical emergencies and unforeseen cancellations. There will be no charge for gas and electricity at the villas as this will be provided by EPS as will adequate bedding and towels for guests. Guest will however be expected to be as modest as is reasonable in their use of power and treat the properties with the respect a family home deserves. Those visiting the properties will have to leave a deposit against breakages with the caretaker, which will be returned on departure providing no damage has occurred during the visit.
Bookings will initially be for a one or two week period and changeover day will be Friday.
We have a dedicated page, villas@narpo.org on our website at www.narpo.org. This page contains further details of the properties, their locations and some suggested travel arrangements. There are also copies of ‘Housekeeping Brochures’ for each of the properties. Members will be required to complete and sign the appropriate brochures before bookings can be confirmed. You should be able to download these documents from our website. Hard copies of the brochure are available from the National Office.
We will only be taking booking in writing either by email using the dedicated booking address at villas@narpo.org or by letter to villas@narpo.org, 38 Bond Street, Wakefield, WF1 2QP. Members should include the number of people in their party when they initially apply for a booking. The final decision on bookings is entirely a matter for NARPO and we will be as fair as is possible but also be seeking to provide this service to as wide a range of members as is possible over the period that we have access to the villas. Preference will be given to parties which meet the sleeping accommodation available at each villa, initially on a first come basis. We can only take and confirm booking for the current month and the three months following that current month. For example in November 2011 we can take bookings up to the end of February 2012, in December 2011 up to the end of March 2012 and so on. We will not entertain applications that are in advance of those periods. We will only provide acknowledgements of successful bookings, that acknowledgement will include a requirement to complete the relevant ‘Booking Brochure’. Bookings will be confirmed immediately on receipt of a properly completed Housekeeping Brochure.
This is a new venture for both NARPO and EPS and one which we hope will improve and develop over time to allow our members access to this delightful accommodation situated in prestigious locations. Members need to bear in mind that the accommodation is of traditional design and has not been regularly occupied for some time. We will be happy to receive any feedback about your experiences in respect of both the booking process and at the villas with a view to improving within reason the free service we are jointly offering you with our kind benefactors.
Yours sincerely
Clint Elliott QPM
Chief Executive