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


Further supplementary memorandum submitted by British Waterways (BW 11c)

BW'S RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LGA

  1.  British Waterways' (BW) network of canals and rivers extends for 2,200 miles and passes through multiple Local Authority areas. BW's relationships with these local authorities varies from area to area and on individual policy aspects relating to the waterways. BW it has many productive relationships with local authorities that meet both organisation's objectives across a range of policy areas.

  2.  The Local Government Association (LGA) " . . . exists to promote better local government . . . ." and " . . . to put local councils at the heart of the drive to improve public services and to work with government to ensure that the policy, legislative and financial context in which they operate, supports that objective." (www.lga.gov.uk (`About us')).

  3.  While BW has many productive relationships with individual local authorities, helping to deliver waterway-related benefits to local communities, it currently has no formal relationship with the LGA.

  4.  BW would be keen to see a formal, high level relationship with the LGA emerge during 2007 since it believes that such a relationship would have mutual benefit to each organisation and also to the LGA's individual members.

  BW believes that benefits would arise in the following areas of Local Government policy and implementation:

    —  National Planning Policy: this policy area is currently under review by central Government, and once the review is completed, it will have a number of effects on local planning rules and guidance. One example is the need for more marina berths (10,000 by 2015) to cater for the forecasted growth in leisure boating. Currently, individual planning applications made by private developers for green field sites alongside the canal and river network are viewed (in the majority of cases) unfavourably by local authority Planning Committees because they are seen as being in contradiction with current planning guidance and policy. In reality, these sites can provide considerable benefits in terms of jobs and local services to the rural economies through which 75% of BW's network passes through.

    —  Proposed Planning Gains Supplement: due for implementation in 2009, it is expected that individual local authorities will have a high degree of control on how revenues are distributed locally. BW would find it helpful, through an active relationship with the LGA, if guidance issued centrally by the LGA took account of the benefits of waterways to local communities and the role BW has in maintaining and enhancing local waterways.

    —  Economic Development (waterside regeneration): BW is currently directly involved in over £6bn of waterside regeneration, creating new and rejuvenated public realm from which local communities benefit in terms of housing, employment and leisure activities.

    —  Transport policy implementation: BW's network of towpaths, particularly in urban areas, provide a safe, green route for commuters and other functional-style visits. These directly contribute to local authorities' Local Transport Policies (LTP), and as such BW receives some monies from local authorities for the care and upgrade of towpath surfaces. Greater involvement at a national level with LGA representatives would help bring more consistency to individual local authority implementation of LTP's.

British Waterways

April 2007






 
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