6th June 2003

Dear All,

I would firstly like to apologise for not contacting you sooner, but I've been working overseas in order to try and cover the money I invested in the Ecosalvage project.

I'm afraid I do not have any good news to share with you. After our initial triumphs on the 'Brighton' job and the coverage we received from television and the media, things took a turn for the worst.

Unfortunately I completely misread the support we would receive from potential sponsors. Many household names that have sponsored Max Adventure projects in the past did not want to help with Ecosalvage, but happy to support any future endurance driving records we might undertake! I had hoped that helping the British countryside would be more worthwhile.

However, as frustrating as this has been, the most disappointing thing has been the lack of support from the various environmental groups around the country who are complaining of the scale of the dumped car problem. One well-known organisation that is a huge landowner has still not endorsed Ecosalvage even after 18 months of asking.

After 18 months of hard work, I am personally out of pocket to the tune of £39,000 and with no sponsors or organisations willing to help at this stage, I have had to put the project on hold. Of the 63 'grant-giving' organisations I felt we could apply to, only 8 said we fell within their criteria. On applying for funding, they said they would consider any application in April 2004 and if successful award money in April 2005!

I still believe that Ecosalvage is a worthwhile project, but as you will appreciate, I have to earn a living. At the moment I am driving a truck around Europe for Carl Fogerty's motorbike race-team. It's not brilliant money and very hard work, but at least I am going someway towards paying for Ecosalvage.

To all those people who openly and actively supported Ecosalvage, I cannot thank you enough. It's a shame though that more support has not been there, as every day we are not operating a further 20 cars are dumped in inaccessible parts of the countryside.

Maybe when we are knee-deep in dumped cars attitudes will change, but until then I'm afraid to report that there's not a lot I can do to help. I will endeavour to seek new sponsors to kick-start the project, but my time available to work on Ecosalvage is now limited to just a few hours per month.

Some councils are reporting an expected 600% increase in dumped cars when the new European 'End of Life Vehicle Directive' comes into force. This will put the cost of disposing of an old car somewhere between £150 and £300, so encouraging more people to dump their old car - maybe then we will get some support.

In the meantime, thank you again to all of you who put in so much hard work and gave up so much of your time to help me launch Ecosalvage.

Yours sincerely,

Mac Mackenney

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