More Volunteers?

British Waterways is planning to increase the number of days worked by volunteers on its network from 5,000 to 10,000 a year. A national volunteering manager has been appointed to help this to happen. The volunteers would assisting with projects such as heritage work, vegetation management and clearance of towpaths. [report]

This sounds like an excellent plan. There must be a good number of people who care enough about their local waterway to give some of their time in this way.

However, the volunteers must not replace paid staff! The work they do should be additional to what can be achieved now. Used imaginatively, voluntary work can enhance the work of BW, but we are still going to need experienced, multi-skilled bank staff who can turn their hands to anything from water management to emergency lock gate repairs.

Overgrown vegetation and crumbling heritage are symptoms of inadequate waterway funding. The ultimate solution is more money! Bring on the volunteers, but bring on better funding, too!

Blogging On

It has been necessary to move the "blog" feature across to "Blogger" as the old blog was receiving the attention of spammers! We have copied as many of the entries and comments from the old blog as we could. We hope you find the new version easy to use and look forward to your comments.

We apologise for the technical problems with the Save Our Waterways website over Easter.

Waterways Parliamentarian of the Year

The IWA has awarded its first title of "Waterways Parliamentarian of the Year" to Charlotte Atkins, MP for Staffordshire Moorlands.

Charlotte has secured two adjournment debates on waterway funding, tabled many questions on waterway matters, met with the minister on many occasions and given her time in other ways for the benefit of the waterways.

The award was made at the House of Commons on 1st April at a dinner by Bob Laxton MP and attended by leading waterway figures including the Waterways Minister, Jonathan Shaw MP; the Speaker of the House of Commons, and other distinguished guests.

The twenty MPs present, from all the major parties, had made significant contributions to the well-being of the waterways during the past year, and were contenders for the award.

This most welcome initiative of the IWA's shows appreciation to MPs for their efforts in their key role in helping to fight for improved funding for the waterways.

It is vital that the underfunding of the waterways remains high on MPs' agendas, and it is to be hoped that this event will achieve this. To that end, SOW continues to encourage supporters to write to their MPs, especially with concerns about the effect on their local canals and rivers.

EU Money Floods In

This week came the announcement that the European Commission has approved a payment of £120 million to Britain to cover the costs of floods in England last summer. The money, from the European Union Solidarity Fund, is to cover costs incurred by public bodies in coping with the floods, rather than for insurance claims.

Government ministers have not yet decided how the money will be distributed. It is believed that British Waterways spend around £10 million dealing with the floods, which is money that has had to be diverted away from BW's other spending needs. It seems only right, then, that BW should get its fair share of the cash.

While Treasury ministers are making their minds up, this might be a good time to write to your MP to ask them to ask the ministers whether BW is going to get its share of the EU cash. We know that last year's campaign of contacting MPs had an impact, so questions raised now could help BW to get some if its much-needed money back.

Email your MP now from here: http://www.writetothem.com

Who’s got BW’s money?

There have been big cuts in the funds DEFRA has given BW in the last couple of years, and BW falls behind again this year, as the cash settlement doesn't allow for inflation. So who’s got the money that would otherwise have gone to BW?

DEFRA Minister Jonathan Shaw has given the figures that reveal all in a written answer on the funding of DEFRA's "arm’s length" organisations [see report]. The figures look complicated, but helpfully show the comparable increases or decreases in real terms allowing for inflation.

It would appear from adding up the figures that BW's funding has dropped in real terms by £8.95 million from 2005-6 to 2007-8. Only WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) comes off worse, with a drop of £13.43 million. The figures for Natural England cannot be compared, as the figures for 2006-7 included the setting-up costs which, of course, were not needed again in 2007-8.

So who's got more money? Over the same period (2005-6 to 2007-8) Animal Health got a real terms increase of £15.1 million, the Carbon Trust £26.32 million, the Rural Payments Agency £35.9 million and the EA got a staggering increase of £127.3 million.
The troubles of the Rural Payment Agency are allegedly one of the main reasons for DEFRA's woes. The Carbon Trust helps businesses and public organisations to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide, a worthy and necessary service, but why should this receive such a big increase at a time when DEFRA claims to be strapped for cash? And why has EA required such a large increase? It makes BW's reduction seem like chicken feed!

A drop in spending power of 8 or 9 million pounds is devastating to a small organisation like BW, but one can't help feeling that it could be absorbed by one of the bigger-spending agencies without anything like the same impact. BW does indeed seem to have been treated unfairly, with the funding axe falling disproportionately on it!

Much of BW's financial shortfall may have been coped with in the short term by cuts in planned maintenance and repairs but this can only lead to bigger bills in future years, repairing failed infrastructure and catching up on the ever-increasing maintenance backlog.

Whose Rubbish Is It Anyway?

A couple of weeks ago we raised the issue of whether local councils should foot the bill to remove rubbish thrown into canals in their area, rather than BW [see blog post].
The lack of clarity about whose responsibility clearing water-borne rubbish should be comes up in a report in the Worcester News. Because the rubbish concerned is piled up against a bridge crossing the River Severn, there is a three-way pointing of fingers between BW, the Environment Agency and Worcester City Council, with no-one putting their hands up to accept responsibility [read Worcester News article online].
We think that since most rubbish in waterways originates from residents in an area, the local council should bear the cost, just as they would for removing rubbish littering the streets. That would leave BW and EA with more money for maintaining the structures of the waterways.
What do you think? Add your own comment.

"Flat Cash" for BW Confirmed

So Defra has at last revealed its allocation of funding for 2008-9 and BW is to get roughly the same as it did last year (as speculated before Christmas). Is that good or bad? Well a bit of both, really.

Why is it good? Because it could have been worse! There might have been a cut in the amount of money as there was last year. This moderately good outcome must be, at least in part, due to the continuing campaigns of Save Our Waterways, Inland Waterways Association and others, and the lobbying of MPs by supporters. It must also be due in part to the enlightened approach of the new Waterways Minister Jonathan Shaw. He has shown a willingness to meet and listen to waterway users and made positive initiatives such as setting up an Interdepartmental Working Group for waterways.

Why is it bad? Because it is still not enough! It is based on the amount given last year after the severe cutbacks had been made the previous year. BW is short of somewhere in the region of £25 million a year. It had to make huge reductions to its maintenance and repair programme this winter and this will only lead to larger repair bills in the future and could lead to further failures such as that at Gilwern.

We need you to keep up the pressure on MPs and ministers! Watch this website for the next stages of our continuing campaign!

Click on "Comments" to add your own opinion!