Memorandum submitted by the Country Land
and Business Association
Following the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Committee invitation to all interested parties to submit a brief
written Memorandum setting out their views on this matter the
CLA responds as follows.
Most of the 36,000 members of the Country Land
& Business Association (CLA) are by definition rural landowners.
CLA members' businesses manage land, generate jobs, provide land
and buildings for investment and housing for local people, and
participate in environmental land management programmes. Land
is the principal asset of most CLA members and its value depends
particularly upon the use to which is it put under planning policy.
During the last seven years the CLA have acted
as advisors to the Cotswold Canal Partnership Board and have neither
actively supported nor discouraged the project as our membership
includes both those who actively support the restoration of the
canal and wish to exploit the diversification opportunities and
those who feel the canal restoration would interfere with their:
landowning interests; farming practices; quite enjoyment of private
dwellings and operation of rural businesses. We have also voiced
concern over acquisition of private land principally by compulsory
purchase.
Further to announcement, we have concerns over
the withdrawal of British Waterways from the Cotswold Canal Restoration
Board as they have been the main drivers of the project and have
principally been responsible for implementation as well as the
ongoing maintenance of the project. British Waterways also contributed
their vast wealth of knowledge and expertise to the project and
their departure leaves a void which cannot be filled by the remaining
members of the board. The CLA feel that it is important to stress
that if the Cotswold Canals Partnership want to forge ahead with
this project they need to carefully consider the practicalities
of the project without the support of British Waterways, especially
in relation to realistic funding requirements.
It is of particular concern that in addition
to British Waterways abandonment of the restoration project it
is also lapsing it's commitment to the ongoing maintenance of
the canal once restored. The CLA would like a clear management
plan for the future maintenance of the canal with a predicted
annual budget for repair and ongoing maintenance.
Charlotte Sealy
South West Regional Surveyor
Country Land and Business Association
March 2008
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