Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Minutes of Evidence


Memorandum submitted by the Inland Waterways Association (BW 27)

BACKGROUND ON IWA

  The Inland Waterways Association is a registered charity formed in 1946 by individuals who wished to turn our inland waterways from the abandoned ditches many had become into the widely used and much loved amenity that they are today. The Association, through its national membership and local waterway societies, campaigns to convince government, local authorities and the public of the need for canals and river navigations, and through its Waterway Recovery Group has helped restore hundreds of miles of waterways for use by boaters, walkers and anglers.

  IWA has been active and often the driving force in waterway restoration the length and breadth of the country.

  We have nearly 18,000 individual members, and 289 affiliated non-profit-making waterway organisations. More than 25,000 volunteer hours are annually donated through our Waterway Recovery Group.

  Contact: Neil Edwards, Chief Executive, The Inland Waterways Association

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  1.  The sudden cuts to grant-in-aid for British Waterways in 2006 threaten to undermine investment in recent years. The seriousness of the crisis into which BW has been thrown should not be underestimated.

  2.  BW requires security of funding to enable best use of its resources.

  3.  Postponement of maintenance work creates additional expense later; simple repair jobs turn into major reconstruction.

  4.  Owing to inadequate funding, BW has been unable to comply with its statutory requirements to maintain the waterways to certain standards for many years. Government should not regard itself as "above the law".

  5.  Waterway restoration, led by the voluntary sector for the past 40 years, has provided urban and rural regeneration on a massive scale. This works needs to be encouraged and nurtured.

  6.  Waterways classified as "remainder" under the 1968 Transport Act should be upgraded to avoid annomolies of management.

  7.  The historic landscape of the inland waterways is under threat from developers and commercial pressures on BW.

  8.  Freight carriage on the waterways is under-utilised and under-appreciated, but has great potential to address government's carbon-reduction agenda.

  9.  A single major navigation authority could reduce management costs and government bureaucracy.

FUNDING

  10.  The first line of BW's Annual Report 2005 states that by 2012 "we will have created an expanded, vibrant and largely self sufficient network used by twice as many people as in 2002".

  11.  If the cuts to BW's grant-in-aid continue, year on year, IWA contends that this aspiration will not be realised. Rather the system will go into decline, the investment of recent years will fail to reach its full potential and the work of countless volunteers and supporters will be frustrated. These adverse impacts will be felt across government departments, causing far bigger losses in other areas than the minimal amounts intended to be saved by Defra.

  12.  The scale of the cuts means that BW will have to make year on year cuts in areas "soft" for cutting, such as maintenance and waterway restoration projects.

  13.  BW's chief executive warned at its Annual Meeting in October that the waterways could not be "expanded" as BW will not have the finace to support many of the more than 100 restoration schemes currently under discussion.

  14.  The cuts also mean that the benefits of inland waterways will reduce, as many boaters will have been forced off the water since BW has stated that licence fees are to rise substantially. Maintenance will reduce, thus users from all walks of life will be discouraged from using the waterways. Historical evidence shows that lack of use leads to anti social behaviour and general decline.

  15.  BW's chief executive Robin Evans also said at its Annual Meeting "In December 2005 our grant from DEFRA was £62.6 million, we would have expected that grant to remain at that level or increase in line with inflation. The reality is that we have had a 12% cut this year and are under threat for it to rise to 15%. Most of this was imposed well into the financial year when a very large part of our budget was committed." He concluded that something like 20% of available spend would have to be cut. Anticipating 07/08 he believed the grant would be £55.4 million.

  16.  The actual figure was remarkably close to his prediction at £55.5 million and was published by DEFRA in the late afternoon of the last working day before Christmas.

  17.  Throughout the autumn the Waterways Minister Barry Gardiner stated that the cuts were a one-off (see Radio Five Live interview with Jane Garvey 12 October 2006), that the 180 job cuts announced days after the Annual Meeting were part of BWs normal re-structuring and that no decision had been made regarding the 2007-08 grant. Even so, the figure of 180 BW jobs lost takes no account of the many more jobs lost by private maintenance contractors, etc.

  18.  The fact that the government clearly plans major reductions in its funding of British Waterways year-on-year has massive implications for it. Even modest budget reduction mean that maintenance engineering has to be delayed; thus minor repairs jobs turn into major rebuilds—because the "stitch was not in time". Thus the multiplier effect of cuts impacts right across BW in all areas, as even more money has to be spent on what would have been minor maintenance jobs had they been done in time. What may seem a few million pounds today quickly multiplies up to many tens of millions in the near future. It is easy to see how the effects will be devastating. It happened before in the 1970s. People close to the waterways understand this and remember what happened before, which is why the campaign among waterway users is so passionate—people understand and remember how quickly the waterways can decline.

  19.  IWA contends that all along ministers knew that this was not a one-off but a planned reduction in spend, to enable money to be redirected to other areas such as Climate Change as well as fill financial holes created by problems such as the Rural Payments Agency.

  20.  IWA believes the effects of these cuts cannot be over-estimated and that ministers have failed to understand the impact of their decisions.

MAINTENANCE

  21.  The scale of maintenance for BW is almost impossible to imagine. It is responsible for more than 2,000 miles of navigable waterways, 2,739 listed buildings (only the National Trust and Church of England have more), 42 scheduled monuments and towing paths and outdoor structures throughout the country. Last year BW spent £1.3 million on litter collection alone.

  22.  Most of the network dates back over 200 years, can be complicated, and requires regular maintenance and supervision. Even experienced boaters welcome assistance on many lock flights and through structures such as tunnels, let alone the increasing numbers visiting on hire fleet boats. Delays and closures to parts of the system are regular and these problems will increase if maintenance is neglected.

  23.  All users will be discouraged from visiting waterways if they are neglected and litter strewn. The less they are used the greater will be the problems associated with anti social behaviour. This will impact on other areas of government policy as fewer visits will mean less people are cycling, walking or taking part in physical activities on or around the water. Lower maintenance standards also mean the waterways will become less accessible to all sectors of society, especially those with less than full mobility.

  24.  In its Annual Report 2005-06 BW states that it had £119 million of outstanding statutory maintenance arrears—ie the cost of restoring the absolute minimum standards that Parliament has decided that BW must maintain. BW had hoped to eliminate these arrears by 2012 helping it to achieve its overall vision.

  25.  Last year, even before this round of cuts, the government cut its grant to BW by £2.5 million. The amount BW spent on reducing maintenance arrears dropped from £27.2 to £25.6 million—a cut of £2.4 million—a remarkably similar figure to the cut in funds from the government.

  26.  Apart from the 180 job losses in year BW has also "merged" two regions—Central Shires and West Midlands—both in the heart of canal country. This will lead to a further distancing from the waterways of BW managers, as they are physically both fewer and further away from the canals and users they previously have worked with.

  27.  IWA contends that reductions in maintenance will reduce boating and other activity, adversely impact across many government policies and reduce the benefits currently enjoyed by the wider community.

DREDGING

  28.  One area of the network little understood is that of dredging. Both rivers and canals can silt up quickly and thus quickly become unnavigable. The system needs regular dredging in order to keep it open for traffic. Many canals, often those constructed originally on a shoestring, are even at the best of times difficult for deep draughted vessels to navigate. The Caldon Canal and Leicester section of the Grand Union Canal are good examples. Lack of dredging causes greater erosion and increases other maintenance costs.

  29.  Dredging is expensive, particularly as landfill taxes rise, but lack of dredging will quickly result in some canals becoming impassable, and cause increased long-term costs.

RESTORATION AND DEVELOPMENT

  30.  More than 200 miles of navigable canals have been re-opened in recent years—an achievement brought about by money from central and local government, by European funding, Lottery, fundraising and sheer hard voluntary effort.

  31.  Among the crowning achievements, where dead waterways have been brought back to vibrant life, are the Kennet and Avon, the Huddersfield Narrow and the Rochdale canals. Countless communities have been transformed by the re-opening of canals or canal stretches. One example being the Anderton Boat Lift, known as the "Cathedral of the Canals"—now a major tourist site to see boats lifted 50" between the river Weaver and Trent and Mersey Canal.

  32.  A recent success is the Liverpool Link. In 2005, BW secured all the funding and permissions needed for construction work on the Liverpool Link to start. The £17 million financial jigsaw comprises a £7.5 million award from the Merseyside Objective One programme, along with funding from North West Development Agency (£7.5 million), English Partnerships (£1.7 million) and BW (£210,000). Work on the new waterway started in late 2006 and is due for completion at the end of this year, the city's 800th anniversary, and in readiness for the Capital of Culture celebrations in 2008.

  33.  BW expects the Liverpool Canal Link to entice more than 4,500 boat visits to Liverpool's waterfront each year, adding colour and vibrancy to the currently underused waterways around Liverpool 's southern docklands. Boats will be able to navigate through the current canal terminus at Stanley Dock and into the heart of the city's new focal point at Pier Head. The Link and boats are likely to attract 200,000 extra visitors each year, spending an additional £1.9 million, generating nearly 200 jobs for Merseyside.

  34.  It is a good example of BW's involvement in partnership working with regional agencies and the regeneration sector.

  35.  The above restorations all required significant investment, in terms of both expertise and financial support, from BW. Additionally BW has had to accept responsibility for the maintenance of wateways once they are re-opened. But it is unlikely that BW would be able to undertake new responsibilities in a climate of cost-cutting.

  36.  IWA is greatly concerned that was has been described as The Second Canal Age will come to an end as a result of these cuts.

  37.  Just one example of the many future schemes that may be threatened is the Montgomery Canal, which runs for 35 miles from Frankton Junction near Ellesmere in Shropshire, to Newtown. It was abandoned after a breach in 1936.  Restoration has been painstakingly patched together over more than thirty years, and has received considerable support and assistance from local authorities, IWA and volunteers from Shropshire Union Canal Society and IWA's Waterway Recovery Group who have restored many structures, including the locks at Frankton, Aston, Carreghofa, Burgeddin, Brynderwen and Newhouse.

  38.  The canal is now open to navigation on an isolated 11-mile section from Berriew, through Welshpool, to Ardleen and for six miles from Maesbury to the junction with the Llangollen Canal at Frankton Junction. This is currently being extended with £1.1 million funding from a Heritage Lottery Fund Grant, European and BW funds and grants from of Shropshire Union Canal Society and IWA. Restoration is promoted by a partnership led by BW, and including the local authorities, heritage and wildlife groups, Montgomery Waterway Restoration Trust, IWA and Shropshire Union Canal Society.

  39.  BW is usually a key player in waterway restorations, even where they are not owned by BW, because of its expertise and resources. In the current climate that role is likely to be lost, and much investment from the voluntary sector would be lost.

  40.  Robin Evans, again at the recent AGM, explained that BW's tightening financial situation made it more risk averse and this would affect its readiness to take on new projects and actively participate in restoration schemes where it is not already committed.

  41.  By not expanding the network BW would reduce the future financial opportunities it can itself reap.

  42.  IWA is greatly alarmed that future restoration schemes not already committed could be shelved for the foreseeable future.

REMAINDER WATERWAYS

  43.  The 1968 Transport Act labelled some of the lesser used waterways of the time as remainder. This includes, for example, much of the now very well used Kennet & Avon Canal. Such labelling is obsolete and acts as a barrier to funding. There are approximately 180 miles of navigable remainder waterways that should be reclassifed to "cruiseway" status straight away. It would cost government nothing, and there is no reason that it could not be done immediately. Whilst this will not in itself produce extra funding, it would remove the excuse for local authorities, regeneration bodies and the private sector to treat these as second-class waterways.

STEWARDSHIP OF THE NETWORK

  44.  In recent years BW has developed a number of strategies to increase income including encouraging business to develop new marinas, property developments such as Paddington Basin and a more property development orientation rather than a focus on stewardship of the existing network. This pressure can only increase in the current financial circumstances.

  45.  Many of the planning gains obtained by BW have been to the benefit of boaters and other users, but increasingly, particularly in inner cities, canals are lined by rows of new designer flats built on former wharves, and at the expense of the historic waterway landscape being lost. Such new developments are often aimed at young single people or as retirement homes rather than as mixed communities. In some parts, like north London, all original wharves have gone and access to the water is increasingly difficult. In other instances new developments have been built alongside boatyards and marinas with pressure from the new owners for boating activity to be curtailed.

  46.  The network is historic and reflects the different private companies who originally constructed it. Recently BW has formed a new partnership with Newcastle Pub Enterprises to build or run 100 pubs along the network. If not sympathetically handled, the canals could find uniform pubs unsuited to the local environment.

  47.  It is simply unacceptable, and ultimately self defeating, for the waterays to be allowed to be stripped of their historic character and purpose for short-term commercial gain.

  48.  IWA is concerned that unreasonable financial pressures are forcing BW into inappropriate dealings to over-commercialise the waterway network and asset-strip at the expense of environmental and historic considerations and without due regard for public benefit and amenity.

FREIGHT

  49.  One of the tragedies of the decline of Britain's waterways in the 20th century was the end of mass freight movement on the waterways. During the first Canal Age the ability to move goods by water revolutionised industry, which previously had relied on packhorses.

  50.  The government, particularly the former Office of Deputy Prime Minister, has been keen to develop increased movement of freight by water in recent years. Some developers are now using the canals to move aggregates and building materials by canal. There seems to be a general goodwill for the waterways to be used to bring materials to the Olympics site and a new multi-million pound recycling scheme has started on the Regent's Canal.

  51.  IWA welcomes this development and believes it should be encouraged through Green Taxes. Non time-critical materials, such as paper, materials for recycling, coal, etc, could be moved by water, thus reducing carbon emissions and greenhouse gases—and removing many lorry movements from the roads. Financial incentives to industry to move to water would also increase BW's income.

  52.  Government should reaffirm its commitment to the more environmentally-aware method of freight movement, and turn words into actions by investment and incentives to get appropriate traffics on to the water.

A NETWORK FOR THE FUTURE

  53.  IWA believes that the current waterways network is fragmented and needs to be brought together. Currently there are more than 20 navigation authorities in the country, all of whom have different rules and licences.

  54.  A trip from Guildford to Cambridge would require a licence from the National Trust through the Wey Navigation, an Environment Agency licence along the Thames, a BW license from Brentford to Northampton, a completely different Environment Agency license from Northampton to Peterborough, different arrangements through the Middle Level Navigations to the Denver Sluice (a tidal lock currently suffering from severe silting) and then back to the Environment Agency's Anglian regime for travel to Ely, and then separate arrangements for the river Cam, from the Cam Conservators, into Cambridge.

  55.  Each navigation authority has different rules and regulations.

  56.  A single licence along the system would save all parties money and reduce bureaucracy; the duplication and cost to both navigation authorities and boat owners alike is immense, unnecessary and needs addressing.

  57.  In recent years the inland waterways have brought outstanding benefits to the nation, addressing agendas in all parts of government and providing one of best rates of return on investment seen anywhere in public spending. British Waterways is widely seen as virtually the only success story within DEFRA. Restoration schemes have rightly earned the waterway sector recognition as leaders in both urban and rural regeneration—and all at remarkably small cost, and always on time and on budget. Quite simply, an unrivalled success story—and yet, seemingly, government would throw all this away for some tiny savings.

  58.  If the proposed cuts in funding are allowed to happen, the net effect to government policies ranging from health and sport through to environmental protection will suffer. BW will lose its ability to expand and assist itself in becoming more self sufficient. It will be unable to meet its aspirations for 2012.

  59.  The old saying "for a happorth of tar the boat was lost" was never more apposite.

The Inland Waterways Association

January 2007





 
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