Memorandum submitted by the Bedford &
Milton Keynes Waterway Trust on behalf of the Bedford & Milton
Keynes Waterway Partnership
1. Our evidence is about the positive experiences
that the Bedford & Milton Keynes (B&MK) Waterway Partnership
have had in working with British Waterways since 2000, on our
scheme to build 24km of new 21stC waterway.
2. BW recognised the potential of the scheme—originated
by volunteers as a millennium project—in 2000, and had the
national reputation for waterway development that enabled it to
create the founding B&MK partnership of over 20 local and
regional organisations, including all local councils and drainage
agencies, user groups and environmental and economic stakeholders.
This group commissioned the first feasibility studies under BW
project direction.
3. In 2004, the Trust took over project
management, with a number of the Partners supporting our Core
Project Office in cash and in kind. Since 2005, BW's contribution
of serviced office space for one of our officers which enables
them to have easy access to BW expertise.
4. BW provides us with expert support, in
the form of access to staff who between them unrivalled knowledge
base about waterway planning, design, construction, maintenance,
and usage; and the types of waterside/waterbased development that
could be used to fund it, along with knowledge of bidding for
funds.
5. BW was mission critical in our securing
the support of Milton Keynes Council for the project in 2005:
we simply would not have achieved this without the compelling
case they helped us to create, drawing on their nationwide involvement
in regeneration.
6. In 2006-7 BW were critical to our success
in being shortlisted for BIG Lottery funding for the first stretch
of our new waterway (Milton Keynes Waterway Park), demonstrating
that our partnership had the technical know-how to deliver. BW
undertook the procurement of studies on a tight timescale from
suppliers on its Framework—we could not have achieved this
by any other means—and provided invaluable expert witness
at all review meetings with BIG. That we scored highly (7 green,
5 amber and 0 red ratings) in our final assessment was due to
the effective work by four local partners: BW, MK Council, MK
Parks Trust, and our Trust.
7. BW is currently actively involved in
the B&MK Waterway Partnership Committee that steers the project,
and in the Milton Keynes Waterway Park Project Group, where they
have lead responsibility for developing the methodology that will
enable the Partnership to build the first 1km out of 8 that fall
in the MK area.
8. Locally, we are delighted that BW is
clear about the long terms benefits that the B&MK will deliver,
and see it as local priority where it can justify the input of
time and expertise, alongside other demands.
9. Nationally, the B&MK Waterway development
is of key importance because it will link the isolated Fenland
waterway network to the central can system. A nationwide waterway
network needs a strong national body in charge of its present
and its future.
10. It is vital that the nation not only
maintains the waterway assets it has, but also over time restores
those it used to have—and, equally importantly, invests
in development of waterways for the future that meet the economic,
environmental, and social demands of the new century.
11. BW needs to be suitably funded for the
full range of activities from maintenance, to restoration, to
new development, so that it can maintain and build the knowledge
base that allows it to provide expert support to schemes across
the country, to the benefit of the nation as a whole.
12. Working in partnership with many other
organisations, BW's expertise then helps to lever support for
waterway development from many other different sources.
13. The B&MK Partnership ask the EFRA
Select Committee to encourage BW to continue its good work in
restoration and regeneration; to focus its energies on building
and sharing its expertise; and to continue to work constructively
in long term partnerships which, as in the case of the B&MK,
will over time, restore and create more Waterways to the benefit
of us all.
Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Trust,
on behalf of partners in the B&MK Waterway Partnership, who
include:
Bedford Borough Council, Bedford Group of Drainage
Boards, Bedford River Users Group, Bedfordshire County Council,
Country Land & Business Association & NFU, Cranfield University,
East of England Tourist Board, East of England Development Agency,
Environment Agency, Forest of Marston Vale, Great Ouse Boating
Association, Grand Union (South) Angling Club, Inland Waterways
Association, Mid Bedfordshire District Council, Milton Keynes
Council, Milton Keynes Parks Trust, Natural England, Renaissance,
Bedford South East England Development Agency, Sport England Sustrans,
The Waterways Trust
Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Trust
March 2008
| 
