CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE

How the Morris Minor Owners Club is dealing with MOT 2021

UPDATE 28 Jan 2021

CANCELLATION OF MOT 2021

DEAR MOT’ERS Following the UK Government implementing the 3rd national lockdown and the changes to travel between the UK and France, including the need for a negative test before travel back to the UK, the MOT team and the Organisers held a series of virtual meetings to discuss the viability of the Minors On Tour trip going ahead in 2021. All the information available to us - campsite, ferries, and the UK vaccination rollout - indicates that it would not be prudent, even if it were physically possible, for the event to run this year and so we have taken the extremely difficult decision to cancel the MMOC MOT event in 2021. This letter sets out what actions we will be taking on behalf of our members.

EUROCAMP RENTERS

We have had communication from Eurocamp to inform us that they are now unable to provide the number of units that they have accepted bookings from our members for, due to a number of their units now being at the end of their useful life. Eurocamp have agreed to provide a full refund on all bookings - not just the individuals who’s units no longer exist - in recognition that ours was a ‘group’ event and so bookings are counter dependant on each other. An agent from Eurocamp will be in touch with all people who booked with them in order to arrange how that refund will take place in the next 7-10 days or sooner. (Please do NOT contact Eurocamp as this will not speed up the process.)

DOMAINE DE LA BRECHE RENTERS/CAMPERS

Members who booked their accommodation directly with the campsite have a different scenario. At present, Saumur campsite is not open and cannot give a firm date when that will change as they are obviously dependant on national Covid regulations in France. For 2020, the French government created legislation to protect providers from too many demands for refunds in a short space of time, and allowed providers to offer vouchers at first request and only allow customers to insist on money back after a fixed period of time had elapsed. It is possible that a similar solution will be put forward this year. The MOT team are consulting with the campsite and hope that a solution may be found. Please wait for these conversations to be finalised before contacting the site directly – we will write to you again once this has happened.

ALL MOT'ERS

Members should be able to cancel their Channel crossing without undue difficulty if it was simply ‘rolled on’ from a booking for 2020, as the voucher for travel should last until you wish to use it. We are aware that DFDS and Britanny attempted to force vouchers with expiration dates onto customers, and if your provider suggests that you must make a booking or forfeit your payment, you may well find that being a little more forceful and suggesting small claims action may yield a more satisfactory result. Of course it isn’t possible to guarantee that, but weare aware that some MOT-ers have had their date extended indefinitely and we have helped several other people do likewise.

Finally and more happily, we would like to offer anyone who completed a registration for 2021 a prepaid ‘like for like’ registration for MOT 2022. At present though we do not know where that MOT will take place, only that it will happen as soon as Covid allows. We can confirm that the event will NOT be held in Saumur. We hope that MOT’ers will recognise that the club has incurred significant expenditure in setting up the trip that we are not now able to recover. The MOT team and the Organisers are incredibly sorry to have to make this decision, but regretfully agreed unanimously that taking the early decision to cancel and devote our efforts into making MOT 2022 the event that our MOT’ers have come to expect is the correct choice. Stay safe and well, and we look forward to seeing you as soon as we can.