Memorandum submitted by Shire Cruisers
I submitted evidence to your original enquiry.
I should appreciate the chance to submit brief further evidence.
I have no direct knowledge of the Cotswold Canals.
I do, however, have direct experience of the
consequences of the Mon & Brec problems. As with hire boat
operators all over the system, we have seen local repairs cancelled
for a second winter running. By definition, all scheduled repairs
are essential. The consequence of the cancellations will be deterioration
in both the quality and the reliability of the track on which
we and our customers depend. For example, BW have deferred a pumping
scheme next to our yard which would avert severe problems we experience
in dry weather, literally in the first hour of customers' holidays.
We mentioned the need for this in 7.8 of our evidence, and were
very pleased when this project subsequently went into the programme.
Its deferral causes us to expect great difficulty and much embarrassment
in operating this season.
It is right that BW should be expected to make
provision for "normal" emergencies. Generally, they
fairly effectively cover the catastrophes that arise every year
because the arrears have not been dealt with. But with a catastrophe
as great as the Mon & Brec, it was quite unreasonable to expect
BW to cover repairs from its own resources. BW has a duty to maintain
the waterways on behalf of government. The reality of the 1968
Act is that responsibility for maintenance ends up with the Minister.
Therefore the decision to cancel so much essential repair work
on the system as a whole, and to abandon BW's commitment to the
Cotswold canals, should in my opinion be laid at the Minister's
door.
If this decision stands, the long-term damage
to BW's reputation as a partner will be severe. This will in turn
have lasting adverse effects on the government's own ambitions
for the waterways, as well of course as those of all who use and
care for the waterways.
In particular, this loss of credibility would
adversely affect the willingness of outside bodies to enter partnerships
with BW. In my original evidence (Ev 296 ), I described the great
success BW had achieved with a large group of partners, in restoring
buildings here at Sowerby Bridge. I repeat that section here:
6.1 Our firm was one of the partners in the
project to restore historic buildings at Sowerby Bridge Wharf.
The project was facilitated by the Prince's Regeneration Trust.
The major player was of course BW, the freeholder and largest
investor, but the Heritage Lottery Fund, Calderdale MBC, English
Heritage, Yorkshire Forward and the tenants all played crucial
parts. Work by tenants on the final building is about to start.
6.2 We believe that this project is a shining
example of BW combining its duties to secure financial return,
and to conserve important buildings. This is not because the result
looks pretty and is well used, but because the difficulties which
were overcome were so formidable. The basic scenario is one seen
many times across the system: historically important buildings,
with poor access, where use for boating conflicts with value extraction,
and in secondary or tertiary locations with low value. This project
highlights that there is a trade-off between navigation, conservation
and financial return. Financial return may be maximised only at
the expense of the other two.
6.3 The lessons learnt here must be built
into new public-private partnerships—otherwise the conservation
and waterway elements might well be lost.
I am pleased to report that we, working with
other tenants, have now finished the last building on this large
site (see 6.1 above). BW are just about to carry out the final
works on their part of the site, so the whole project will be
complete this month.
I repeat that BW has invested here, and worked
with partners, not to maximise its short-term gain, but to act
in the very long-term interests of the important listed buildings,
and of the waterways. The project has also achieved the objectives
of BW's many partners. BW deserves great credit.
I hope that your Committee will be able, following
its previous most helpful report, to lend further weight to BW's
efforts to work in partnership with others, by encouraging government
to take greater responsibility for resolving the most unfortunate
situation in which the Cotswold canals, and the waterways as a
whole, find themselves.
Nigel Stevens
Shire Cruisers
March 2008
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