No forecast for clearing BW's £40 million dredging backlog

"Government require BW to operate and maintain waterways to standards that reflect use and prospects of use", said Waterway Minister, Richard Benyon in answer to a question in Parliament from David Heyes about when the backlog of dredging on British Waterways’ canals and rivers would be cleared.

The Minister went on to say: "Dredging is an operational matter for British Waterways (BW) and it applies risk-based prioritisation to its maintenance expenditure." 

"BW estimate that the cost of clearing the current backlog of dredging would be approximately £40 million and BW has not set a time scale for dealing with the dredging backlog." he said.

He concluded by saying: "Future prioritisation of expenditure on the operation and maintenance of the waterways will be a matter for the Canal and River Trust, once BW’s functions and assets in England and Wales are transferred to the charity."

Waterway charity transition trustees to meet Boaters' manifesto representatives

Canal & River Trust Transition Trustee  John Dodswell has told Peter Underwood that he, John Bridgeman and Jane Cotton will meet with representatives of the Boaters' Manifesto to discuss it on Tuesday 20 December 2011 to and he has provided brief biographies of the three.

John Bridgeman CBE

John is British Waterways’ vice chairman, chair of the Fair Trading Committee and the Wales Advisory Group and a pension trustee. He is a former director general of Fair Trading, member of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission and CEO of British Alcan Aluminium plc. He is also regulatory director of the British Horseracing Authority, chairman of the Audit and Standards Committee for Warwickshire County Council, complaints commissioner for the Direct Marketing Authority and a longstanding trustee of three Oxfordshire charities. Lives near Banbury and so knows the Oxford canal, among others, and keen on the Welsh canals.

Jane Cotton

Jane has been human resources director and a deputy chief executive of Oxfam, one of the UK’s largest and most successful charities, for the past 11 years. Prior to this she worked in Departments of Transport and Environment in both policy and human resources roles. In the 1990s Jane was resources director of the Charity Commission and human resources director of Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions. She brings particular expertise in organisational development and change management; also in volunteering, fundraising and charity governance. Lives near Princes Risborough, Bucks. Obviously, knows a lot about running charities and pay strategy; she will chair the Remuneration Committee of CRT.

John Dodwell

John is a chartered accountant who moved into corporate finance and corporate law. He is a former finance director or chair of several property companies (including setting up joint ventures), a former charity trustee (including dealing with investments) and has been a member since 1961 of The Inland Waterways Association, of which he was General Secretary 1970-73. He was chair of the Commercial Boat Operators Association. He will relinquish membership of the Inland Waterways Advisory Council and of the British Waterways Advisory Forum on becoming a trustee for the new waterways charity. Having sailed dinghies, fished and canoed on the Thames and elsewhere in his youth, he went onto hire cruisers over most of the network, enjoying the waterways’ built and natural environment. He now owns an historic narrow boat; it’s an old BCN tug which draws 3 ft over its 51 ft length.

You can sign the Boater's Manifesto petition by following the link at the top of the side panel.


Related stories: 

Exemption from Freedom of Information Act a benefit of charity status says BW Vice Chair
Waterways Minister pre-empts BW consultation and says Canal & River Trust will be subject to FoI Act 

Minister back-tracks on British Waterways FoI statement

BW 'consults' on new image for waterways charity

The name chosen by British Waterways for the new waterway charity does not appear in the top three names suggested by the 350 organisations that responded to the consultation on behalf of their members. This does not come as a surprise to seasoned observers of previous BW consultations. Most popular was 'The National Waterways Trust', followed by 'The Waterways Trust' and 'The Waterways Trust for England and Wales'.  However BW have chosen 'Canals & Rivers Trust' as the name for the new charity.

Along with a new name comes a new logo and speaking at the Kennet & Avon Canal Users Forum last week, the waterway manager, Mark Stephens said: "The new logo represents what we are trying to achieve. The waterways are being promoted as a haven for people and nature, protected and accessible. It is about people and communities enjoying the canal so we have retained the bridge for the backdrop and we wanted an iconic water bird so we have gone for a swan. There was much discussion about which bird it might be — kingfishers were quite popular though they can seem to be a little bit too fleety and so not suitable for our charity which is going to last for a long time."

MEP supports K&A Canal Trust stance on BW Charity plan

The British Waterways ‘top down’ approach to any problem is its biggest failing says South West of England MEP Ashley Fox. 

"You can’t have people in London micro-managing maintenance in Trowbridge", he said following a meeting with the Kennet & Avon Canal Trust in Devizes: "We need to ensure that the new charity gives greater power to local people."

He expressed concern that the ‘New British Waterways Charity’ will continue the tradition of centralised control currently practised by British Waterways, bypassing an opportunity for greater community involvement in the management of Britain’s waterways which are a key part of our industrial heritage.

He paid tribute to the work done in the past by the Trust and commented: "The Kennet & Avon Canal Trust is a first rate example of what can happen when local organisations are given control. They have done wonders in linking National Lottery funding with volunteer, council and business groups and have, over the last decade, restored the canal to the wonder that it is today.

"Our waterways are part of our history and still used today by millions of people across the South West in a whole variety of ways, from fishing and boating, to walking and cycling. It is only right that those who use our canals should decide on their future.

Fox now plans to write to the Minister and urge that the excellent work by the Trust and its partners which has achieved so much be used as the model for improving our inland waterways into the future.

Centralised autocracy of BW must be replaced says Trust

The K&A Canal Trust has expressed serious concerns about the  short timescale for the intended implementation which it says: "Has not allowed the many important lessons learned from the pioneering work on the Kennet and Avon to be adequately reflected in the current proposals."

The Trust has endorsed the concept of giving waterway users and the communities that live alongside them greater involvement in how they are managed. "Unfortunately" they say, "the highly centralised management structures, largely reflecting the current worst features of BW, put forward in the consultation document are the opposite of these worthy principles.

"A new NWC requires a totally new organisational structure. It also needs a totally new management culture which replaces the centralised autocracy of BW by cooperation with partner organisations and respect for their views. The current negative perception of BW among many waterway users is not a good foundation for a new NWC."

Trusts taken for granted

The Trust response is critical of BW staff who are saying: "When we take over" in their dealings with local canal societies increasing concerns that the cooperation or extinction of current societies is being taken for granted. 

BW donations prediction 'optimistic'

The K&A Canal Trust, which has suffered disasterous fund raising efforts in the recent past, sent an email to its members earlier this year describing 2010 as a 'financial nightmare' for the Trust and described its funding raising as "an absolute washout". In its submission it says that the predicted level of donations to the NWC appears optimistic and:"Whereas the proposed level of the Government Funding Contract is significantly lower than that provided to BW in recent years lack of any reference within the Consultation Document to the future of the waterways should the finances fail to meet DEFRA expectations is of serious concern. There is no Plan B."

National Trust comparison — misleading

The K&A Canal Trust believes that the implied comparison with the National Trust can be misleading because the National Trust embraces properties with a viable financial legacy for on-going operation. In contrast, the NWC will inherit the legacy of an underfunded BW with a backlog of deferred maintenance. 

The Trust says

• The NWC must, in its Charitable Purposes, mention responsibility for protecting the heritage of the Waterways.
• The NWC must remain bound to provide public access to information, otherwise it will become a law unto itself. Keeping some aspect of the organisation publicly accountable matches its on-going stewardship of this strategic, public resource.

Lack of accountability

"The fundamental question of accountability of the new organisation deserves careful examination", says the report, "before this great national asset passes into the hands of a less accountable board of charitable trustees. The new organisation must be both transparent and open."

The Trust's complete 3,000 word response to the Defra consultation can be found on their Website at: New Era for the Waterways