Memorandum submitted by Graham Fisher
MBE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The contributor is heavily involved in various
aspects of the voluntary sector of the inland waterways movement
and is also engaged in various aspects on a professional or commercial
basis. He therefore enjoys regular contact with British Waterways
up to the highest levels in both voluntary and commercial sectors.
Graham Fisher is currently Chairman of the Staffordshire
& Worcestershire Canal Society, in which capacity this submission
is offered. Here he outlines his direct involvement with BW and
puts the case for a realistic appraisal of their attributes under
current commercial restraints.
In addition to various other accolades over
the past two decades or more Graham Fisher was awarded the MBE
for services to inland waterways in the 2001 New Year's Honours
list and was voted by his peers as Inland Waterways Personality
of the Year 2005.
SUBMISSION
1. I am Chairman of the Staffordshire &
Worcestershire Canal Society (SWCS). I am also actively involved
in the voluntary sector with various other Societies including
Cotswold Canals Trust. My business focuses largely on inland waterways.
I therefore have regular dealings, both in a voluntary and professional
capacity, with British Waterways (BW) up to and including the
highest levels of the Organisation and have a broad experience
of working with them. However, I wish to focus these particular
observations from my perspective of Chairman of SWCS.
2. SWCS has for many years enjoyed cordial
working relationships with our local BW. One of my first duties
when taking over SWCS in 2005 was to meet with our BW General
Manager to continue fostering our relationship. Not only have
I done so but I am delighted with the further productivity and
genuine mutual respect this has since generated. We have since
met or spoken regularly. This is not to say that BW and SWCS are
in constant agreement but it does mean we can engage in constructive
dialogue to move forwards rather than revert to the `stand-offs'
that appear endemic in certain quarters. It is noteworthy that
on occasions when it is anticipated that problems may arise that
I am often the first point of call. Nowhere was this better exemplified
than in the flooding of July 2007 when I was kept fully informed
by the BW General Manager who was appraising me from the scene
by telephone at 2300hrs on a Saturday night. This by any yardstick
is good service. I will be encouraging my successor to build yet
further on this relationship and I am personally aware of many
beyond our bounds who are frankly deeply envious of it.
3. Apart from the warmth of relationships
enjoyed with BW (which, though intangible, are highly prized per
se) there are numerous more tangible areas in which I can find
nothing but praise for the support given to us by BW in our efforts
to promote the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal (SWC)
for the benefit of all. It will be helpful if I briefly relate
some of these . . .
4. SWC is a fully functioning waterway and
as such does not strictly fall within the `restoration' gambit.
However we still need to maintain the waterway (which enjoys Conservation
Area status) and also seek to improve or indeed regenerate certain
sectors. The most notable example of this is the major improvements
to the Stouport Basins which SWCS has fully supported, in return
for which BW have kept SWCS fully informed and involved.
5. Since 2005 we have seen SWC subjected
to dredging works at Whittington, various towpath initiatives
and a host of improvements that are already well-documented elsewhere.
But the most impressive example of BW's support for our work—impressive
essentially because it didn't even fall entirely within BW's mandate—was
the visit in May 2007 of Lord Morris of Aberavon to our celebrations
of the 40th Anniversary of the reopening of Stourbridge Canal.
Site clearance, staff support, BW VIP attendees, even the renovation
of our directional fingerposts are just some of the ways in which
BW assisted us in staging what will eventually prove to be a historic
event.
6. On a smaller but equally significant
scale we continue to enjoy BW's respect for some of our more revered
members and, following negotiations between BW and SWCS, a memorial
bench to our late former Chairman is being made for us by BW at
this very moment. Jointly funded and implemented by SWCS and BW,
it will be sited shortly at a popular towpath venue and will be
looked after in perpetuity by us both. There is much more, but
I suspect this is sufficient to have made the point.
7. As a member of Cotswold Canals Trust
(CCT) I am aware of recent developments regarding BW's financial
situation and am of course deeply saddened by them. I am not convinced
that BW are happy with this either and believe that they have
been placed in an invidious situation by events and financial
considerations beyond their control. This is as unfortunate as
it is debilitating, the consequences of which are evidently becoming
increasingly self-fulfilling as unexpected contingencies such
as the Mon & Brec breach are expected to take precedence over
pre-existing arrangements such as those with CCT.
8. Perhaps indeed such a committee as this
ought on another occasion be looking beyond BW as to the fundamental
cause of these difficulties; regrettable as the situation with
CCT may be it is clear that the fault cannot be laid squarely
at BW's door. Indeed it saddens me somewhat that there are many
good people that comprise the Body Corporate who find themselves
responding to criticism that should more properly be addressed
by others. Furthermore, it is my considered belief that BW themselves
will be saddened by the necessity to withdraw from CCT since,
based on my experiences, they have an innate ethos to be supportive
yet are frequently prevented from doing so by external constraints.
9. Notwithstanding such difficulties, in
requesting that the Committee encourage BW in the continuance
of its excellent work, especially in supporting the likes of the
Society that I represent, I am happy to commend the experiences
of the BW and SWCS partnership as a model as to how this may,
in appropriate circumstances, be achieved.
10. I trust this information is of assistance
and would be willing to attend in person to give oral evidence
if required.
Graham Fisher MBE
March 2008
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