Save Our Waterways Blog

Wednesday 29 April 2009

British Waterways announces Vision for Future

British Waterways has today launched proposals for its future, entitled "Twenty Twenty - a Vision for for the Future of our Canals and Rivers".

This is the result of a major strategic review that has taken place and follows the government's decision to allow BW to retain its successful property portfolio.

The plans include increasing efficiencies, opening up new funding and partnership opportunities, creating closer links with local communities and the start a move towards the waterways achieving a 'third sector' trust or charitable status similar to that of the National Trust.

As a first step towards greater efficiency, BW proposes a restructure of its own operations in England and Wales, by removing an entire layer of management and creating eleven new, smaller, 'hands-on' waterway units. The move would make around 100 office staff redundant, but the £10 million annual saving would be redirected towards waterway maintenance.

Under the new structure, BW would put a greater emphasis on working with volunteers and local communities.

BW Chief Executive, Robin Evans, said: "Our absolute priority must be to maintain investment in the waterways and this means reducing spending elsewhere. Our proposed new structure will both redirect important funding to essential maintenance work but also make us much more responsive to customers and partners."

In the longer term, BW calls for some fresh thinking about what the waterways mean to Britain and how their sustainable future might be secured. It proposes that, by 2020, it should become a third sector 'public interest company' or trust. BW believes that such a change could stimulate greater participation in the waterways by volunteers and other individuals, enhance openness and accountability for communities and waterway users, create opportunities for new sources of income such as grants and donations, and ensure the historic network is held in trust for the nation.

More information about BW's proposals can be found on its website, here: www.britishwaterways.co.uk/twentytwenty.
The document "Twenty Twenty - a Vision for for the Future of our Canals and Rivers" can be downloaded here.

Thursday 2 April 2009

Waterways Parliamentarian of the Year Award

The Inland Waterways Association has this year awarded the title of "Waterways Parliamentarian of the Year" to David Drew, MP for Stroud.

The award was made in recognition of his notable contribution to the Cotswold Canals restoration and also for his work in chairing two select committee inquiries into British Waterways.

These select committees had done much to inform MPs and to raise the profile of the waterways in Parliament over the last year.

Read IWA News Release.

The award of this title by the IWA reflects the positive relationships that now exist between waterway organisations and parliamentarians.

MPs have instigated a number of debates and enquiries that help to keep the needs of the waterways in the minds of the ministers who make the decisions. Ministers have shown a willingness to listen and to take on board ideas from waterways organisations. This shows how far things have moved on from two years ago when ministers were seeing waterways as a soft touch and waterways organisations were mounting protest demonstrations.