Memorandum submitted by the Inland Waterways
Amenity Advisory Council (IWAAC) (BW 28)
SUMMARY
Expresses concern about the wider impact of
reductions in the core funding for British Waterways and in particular
the longer-term impact on waterway restoration and development
activity.
INTRODUCTION: IWAAC'S
REMIT AND
MEMBERSHIP
1. IWAAC is the statutory body, set up under
the Transport Act 1968, to advise the Board of British Waterways
(BW) and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs (in Scotland, the Scottish Executive) on matters affecting
the use of the Board's 3,200 km of inland waterways for amenity
and recreation.
2. The composition of the present Council
is shown at Annex A. Council Members are appointed by the Secretary
of State for their individual experience and expertise rather
than as representatives of particular bodies or interests. BW
is responsible for funding the Council's work from its annual
grant in aid.
3. In recent years the Council's work has
been widened at Ministerial request to include issues affecting
all waterways. Examples include the development of strategic policy
on leisure and tourism, waterways and their role in regeneration
in urban and rural areas, access to waterways for the disadvantaged,
waterway restoration activity, heritage and the environment and
planning.
4. The Council has good working relationships
with other navigation authorities such as the Environment Agency
and the Broads Authority and helps to advise the Association of
Inland Navigation Authorities (AINA), the umbrella body for all
navigation bodies in the UK.
5. Following the provisions of the NERC
Act 2006, the Council will be reconstituted on 1 April 2007 as
a statutory advisory body to Defra and the Scottish Executive,
funded directly by them and with a strategic remit to advise on
all non-operational waterway matters in England, Wales and Scotland
(in the last on BW waterways only).
COMMENTARY
6. The Committee has set out a number of
issues on which it seeks evidence. The Council wishes to concentrate
in this short memorandum on the impact of changes in Defra's budget,
particularly the longer-term impact on waterway restoration and
development activity.
The impact of reductions in GIA from Defra
7. Along with BW itself, users and other
interested parties the Council is naturally concerned at the cutbacks
in BW's budget for this and the forthcoming financial year. Its
major concern, however, is not so much the short term prospects
where it understands that BW, albeit with difficulty, will manage
the shortfall without serious impact, but the longer term implications.
8. In September 2006 the Council wrote to
the Minister, Barry Gardiner, in the following terms:
"The Council wishes to express to you its
grave concern at the implications for the future health and well
being of the major inland waterways in England and Wales. The
waterways managed by BW and the Environment Agency comprise over
three quarters of the national system. Government financial support
through GIA has underpinned their revival over the last decade,
enabling a wide range of third party funding to be levered in.
The reinvigorated waterways have stimulated growth in waterway-related
businesses, multiplied economic and social benefits for local
communities throughout the country and boosted a thriving voluntary
sector.
If the cuts establish a new and lower baseline
for Government funding, the Council believes that much of this
progress will be put at risk and one of the most successful policies
for which your Department has lead responsibility will be jeopardised".
9. The Council believes that the priority
now is to influence the outcome of the Comprehensive Spending
Review. That requires an informed assessment of the multiplier
effect of alternative future funding scenarios and the Council
is commissioning a short term economic assessment of these to
inform the thinking of the parties involved. The preliminary assessment
should be available in three months. The conclusions from this
research will be fed into a longer term study of funding, which
will be the Council's major piece of work in the coming year.
The purpose of this study will be to determine the most appropriate
and sustainable method of funding the waterways over the next
decade and more.
The impact on waterway restoration and development
activity
10. The restoration of abandoned and derelict
waterways and the development of new waterways has been one of
the great success stories of waterway investment over the last
decade. The Council reported on this activity in 1998 and 2001
and is about to publish a third review of the field. A pre-publication
copy can be made available to the Committee.
11. This third review identifies 118 projects
to restore former, or develop, new waterways and has been able
to establish detailed information on 109 of these. Nine significant
projects have been completed since the second report in 2001,
leaving 100 projects at various stages of development, ranging
from initial studies and fund raising through to partially completed
and awaiting final funding to complete fully. Of these 100, some
20 projects have started or become known since 2001.
12. In addition to reporting on progress
since 2001, the review rates each project—national, regional,
local—by its significance as extensions of the existing
waterway system, its heritage and environmental value and/or its
contribution to urban and rural regeneration.
13. Among the more significant projects
are:
— new strategic waterway links such
as the Bedford-Milton Keynes waterway, connecting the BW network
with the Fenland waterways;
— the opening up of the Bow Back Rivers
in East London as part of the 2012 Olympic project;
— the restoration of the Thames-Severn
link via the Cotswold Canals;
— the restoration of important heritage
and wildlife waterways such as the Montgomery Canal straddling
the England/Wales border;
— the creation of new cruising rings
such as the Droitwich Barge and Junction Canals;
— restoration projects which will extend
existing major waterways, for example the Lancaster Canal northwards
into the Lake District; and
— the restoration of the Manchester,
Bolton and Bury Canal, a key element in the regeneration of this
disadvantaged area and the restoration of the Bradford Canal,
an arm of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, which will bring a waterway
back to life into the heart of one of the few English cities which
lacks this amenity.
14. British Waterways is a key player in
these and many other projects but it is not yet possible to be
certain how Defra funding cutbacks will affect individual projects.
BW is not itself a major direct funder because even if resources
were available it is unable to invest in restorations and new
waterway projects and these rely on third party funding.
Its role, in partnership with local authorities,
lottery and regional funding bodies, active voluntary groups and
others, has been to provide leadership and drive, professional
engineering expertise, fund-raising experience and an outstanding
track record in managing multi-million pound restorations such
as the Rochdale Canal, the Millennium Link in Scotland and the
Kennet and Avon Canal, through to completion in recent years.
15. The Council believes that significant
cutbacks in BW funding in the longer term, and the associated
anxiety about changes in management structure and responsibilities,
must make it increasingly difficult for BW to sustain these essential
support roles which cannot easily be replaced from elsewhere.
They will certainly inhibit BW from embarking on new projects
and committing itself to taking over and maintaining in good order
completed projects. None of these prospects augurs well for future
restoration and development activity.
16. The Council will be pleased to assist
the Committee further and hopes to elaborate on this Memorandum
at an oral hearing.
IWAAC
January 2007
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