How credible are IWA council members of the Canal and River Trust?

The Inland Waterways Association swept the board in the election for the boaters' seats on the Canal & River Trust Council and this has not found favour with many boaters who question how an organisation which represents such a wide range of canal and river users can represent the specific interests of boaters. 

"IWA members’ interests include boating, towpath walking, industrial archaeology, nature conservation and many other activities associated with the inland waterways" says its website.

Four IWA candidates have been elected for the four positions designated to represent boaters on the council of the Canal and River Trust. "But are they credible representatives of all boaters on British Waterways waters?", asks Peter Underwood, who founded the Boaters' Manifesto group and is the author of 'Living Afloat' a no-nonsense book about the reality of living on a boat.

To begin with they were elected by just a quarter of those entitled to vote - hardly a ringing endorsement.
 
Secondly they were backed by the IWA, the biggest waterways charity and the most able to influence boater members by producing recommended candidates.

That makes this result predictable (in fact I predicted it to John Dodwell when the Boaters' Manifesto group met with him) especially with the inevitable low turnout of a hurried election conducted in the winter season.

Thirdly there will be those who conclude that the IWA is a campaigning organisation of boaters so what does it matter that they have all four seats?

The answer is that the IWA is no longer a campaigning body but a collection of committee people happy to do business behind closed doors. It is run by and for often elderly hobby boaters and no longer represents the whole boating community. That is amply demonstrated by its hostility to full-time boaters, especially continuous cruisers.

So we now have the CaRT council with too few boater representatives and those handful that are in place completely controlled by just one view of boating - and that view hostile to thousands who boat as continuous cruisers.

Not only that, they were elected by just one in four voters in an election which allowed a single body to distort the result by jamming the list with nominees.

I suspect that some of the so-called apathy that led to the pathetic 25% turnout was a boycott by boaters who see the election and CaRT as a stitch-up between a Government anxious to offload responsibility, a BW management happy to take perks for as long as possible and 'trustees' from the 'great and good' unwilling to challenge or question the BW management propaganda.

That can only leave full-time boaters more wary and more suspicious of CaRT than we already were.

Here is a so-called charity that is being run by the same people as mismanaged British Waterways - Hales, Evans and the other bonus boys - being monitored by a handful of IWA yes-people who are, in any event, outnumbered on the council.

Of course, there are also increasing doubts about the power or relevance of the council as the trustees appear to be colluding in the establishment of commercial structures within CaRT that may end up making the financial and commercial decisions that will decide the future of our waterways.

Those IWA council members may be powerless to prevent Evans, Hales and co from awarding and collecting yet more undeserved bonuses, flogging off more key equipment, investing in more failing ventures as they spend what little funds there are available on anything except the waterways themselves.

I began the Boaters' Manifesto because I feared just such a stitch-up amongst the greedy BW bosses and the professional committee people of the trustees, the IWA and others. Along the way I met with, argued with and enjoyed the company of a lot of proper boaters.


As I have been politically active for nearly 50 years I never really expected to win, but it is always worth getting important truths an airing.

Boaters like me are now privately resigned to more bonuses, more financial failures, less spent on the network.

We can't look to the IWA council members to fight for our interests and we are reduced to standing on the sidelines once more keeping a beady eye on this ridiculously over-committeed structure that will probably become CaRT eventually. 

They are not our friends and we will to continue to question, criticise and complain when necessary.

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

Boaters' Manifesto — A transtion trustee responds

John Dodwell, one of the Transition Trustees for the new waterway charity, The Canal & River Trust, has responded to the draft Boaters' Manifesto document prepared by Peter Underwood 

John Dodwell's response can be seen in full on Peter's Blog 'Goodbye Blackberry Way' at: http://peterunderwood.blogspot.com/2011/10/boaters-manifesto.html

Boaters to present manifesto to Canal & River Trust

Boaters views on the way that the new waterway charity should be run have been brought together to form a 'Boaters' Manifesto' that will be presented to the Transition Trustees tomorrow to let them know what boaters actually need from them so that they can respond to the new charity with enthusiasm and commitment.

Peter Underwood compiled the manifesto following requests from half a dozen boaters’ groups on Facebook (total membership around 2,500) and through various boaters’ networks on Twitter.

There is still time to have your views considered for the document either through the Boaters' manifesto Facebook page or by email to Peter at: peterunderwood2@gmail.com 

Why the Canal and River Trust should listen to boaters

Navigable waterways were not only created for boats, they are only still with us today because boats and boaters found a new use for them as commercial traffic came to an end.

It has been boaters – not cyclists or walkers or fishermen – who have fought to reopen neglected canals in the face of official opposition; with British Waterways only jumping on the bandwagon in recent years.

Canals without boats don’t last very long for other users as there is no longer a reason to keep the unique industrial heritage in working order, the structures crumble, the water silts up and little is left. Waterways need boats as much as boats need waterways.

Boaters are the only group that has already made a substantial financial and personal commitment to the waterways as well as the only collection of individuals that pays substantial annual fees for their upkeep.

Boaters, especially those with many years of experience and those who live on their craft and travel widely on the system have a wealth of expertise that has been largely ignored by British Waterways and those who helped to compile this manifesto fear that the Canal and River Trust may continue this policy.

Most of all we would like to see many more experienced boaters, proper users of the system, taking a role at national and regional level than the current proposals suggest. Just five out of 35 at a national level is simply wrong.

Navigation

Boaters need navigations that are sufficiently well maintained to enable the vessels designed to use them to travel the whole length of those waterways at all times of the year and operate locks and other equipment with relative ease and safety.

Waterways must not be allowed to deteriorate through lack of maintenance and the Canal and River Trust must have sufficient contingency funds to deal with a major breach – on the scale of those on the Shropshire Union Canal the Monmouth and Breconshire Canal in recent years - without delay.

This means that sufficient government funding is a prerequisite for the Canal and River Trust and if the levels of funding do not fill the massive gap identified by the IWA, and the specialist waterways MPs group, the trustees should refuse to sanction the creation of the charity. It will not be enough to depend on optimistic projections of future charitable income and would be dangerous to do so.

We believe some of the financial projections offered by British Waterways and Defra are simply wrong and need to be tested far more critically than seems the case at present.

Executive management

Boaters and many others have lost faith in the most senior levels of British Waterways’ management in recent years and almost all those who contributed to this manifesto want to see the current directors removed before the Canal and River Trust begins to run the system. Our concern centres on the enormously expensive pay, pension and perks packages of the most senior directors and their willingness to grab bonus payments when staff are being penalised by pay rise well under the rate of inflation.

Boaters do not believe the Canal and River Trust should be willing and will not be able to pay such large scale remuneration and feel that the removal of a group of directors who have little understanding of waterways or boats would do more to give the Trust a fresh start than any new logo.

Middle management

British Waterways’ workforce has become disconnected from the system it looks after. This is due to attempts to farm out much of the bankside and construction work to the cheapest available contractors, along with a policy that obliges the workforce to work in teams covering large areas.

Boaters would like to see visible individuals responsible for a particular stretch of waterway, with clear responsibilities and accountability in the event of failures. 

We believe the skills of the workforce should be valued, encouraged and passed on, especially as caring for a 200 year old artefact requires special expertise. We would like to see work brought back in house and apprenticeships encouraged along the lines of those provided by the National Trust.

Mooring

Whatever else the Canal and River Trust does it will achieve most with most boaters if it applies the same rules on mooring to all parts of the waterways system and enforces them without fear or favour.

This does not exclude setting up special rules in hot-spot areas; but they should then be available for all hot-spots in the country that want to adopt them. We do not believe there is anything wrong with the current mooring guidelines but feel they must be applied equally and effectively across the country. Don’t make rules the Canal and River Trust can’t enforce.

Towpath issues.

Boaters do not mind sharing the towpaths with fishermen, walkers, cyclists and dogs – although we draw the line at motorised vehicles and horses.

We do believe it is essential the Canal and River Trust finds ways of ensuring all those users contribute to the costs of upkeep and abide by a national set of rules.

Once again enforcement will be the key to stopping dog fouling, rubbish and speeding cyclists putting lives at risk.

We would encourage the new Trust to get into schools, angling clubs, cycling, ramblers etc and educate them about the policies on the towpath, and about canals and waterways in general so we can all enjoy them.

An open society?

The Canal and River Trust needs to be completely open with boaters and other supporters and we would urge Trustees to stop avoiding the inclusion of the charity in Freedom of Information legislation.

Given the sensitive existing issues over directors pay, commercial operations such as BWML, pub chains and property development it is essential that the Canal and River Trust’s supporters are able to assure themselves that the murky goings on under British Waterways are brought out into the open and that complete transparency is the rule as soon as the charity begins business.

The Canal and River Trust is vitally important to boaters. Other users can always find what they're looking for somewhere else, if the new trust is not up to scratch, their stake is minimal. If the canal system crumbles then where are all the boat users going to go? 

Liveaboard boaters

The Canal and River Trust should endeavour to help those who live on their boats by the provision of more residential moorings where needed and perhaps usable postal addresses (BFPO can do it for the forces), recycling facilities, more potable water and sewage disposal points.

Those who live on the waterways system, several thousand people, should have specific representation on the board of the Trust.

You can follow Peter Underwoods blog 'Living Afloat' at: http://peterunderwood2.blogspot.com