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THE more I read about the creation of the Canal and River Trust the more suspicious I become.
British Waterways has just announced the process for the election of the four boater members of the Council of the Trust, which 'will have an important role in helping to shape policy, raising and debating issues, and providing guidance, perspective and a sounding board for the trustees'.
That sounds to me like a talking shop, whose views will simply be ignored by the (unelected) Trustees, whenever it suits them. No body consisting of 35 members with no real powers is ever going to be anything else.
In any case, the process of electing these boater members seems to have been designed to make it as difficult as possible. To be nominated, you have to get the signatures of ten other licence holders before the 18th January. Perhaps I'm odd, but while I am acquainted with a number of other licence holders, they are people I meet while I'm on the boat, not people of whom I have the contact details so that I can get in touch with them in the middle of winter when hardly anyone goes boating, even if it doesn't freeze.
Either this requirement has been put in because the person concerned hadn't thought it through and lifted it straight from the rules for local councillors, or it was thought through by someone who wanted to have as few nominations as possible. Cock-up or conspiracy—take your choice.
We have heard a lot about how CaRT is going to be a 'National Trust for the waterways'. It seems to me that it will be more like Network Rail—secretive, accountable to nobody and spending quite a lot of taxpayers' money. Network Rail are currently in trouble over a fatal accident at a level crossing, where it is being accused of covering up Health and Safety reports which highlighted problems at the crossing before the accident. As Network Rail is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, it is proving very difficult to get at the truth.
Hook, Line and Sinker
British Waterways' Public Relations propaganda has scored at least one hit. Richard Morrison in the Times has swallowed British Waterways line completely. '13 million people using the canals and rivers'; 'CaRT puts control of the waterways into the hands of ordinary people'; '24,000 days a year of free labour'; 'annual subsidy of £41million'; 'drawing vital new revenue from users'.
These 'facts' appear to come from the booklet which British Waterways have produced to puff the joys of the new system. Still, Morrison is actually the chief music critic of the Times, so it is not all that surprising that he has been taken in.
Marinas
The last thing the Oxford Canal needs is a 250 berth marina at Cropredy. All it will do is make an already crowded canal worse, by encouraging boat owners to move South, emptying marinas further North.
The Oxford is already full, at least South of Braunston, with long convoys on the flat bits and long queues at the lock flights—and that is even before you take into account the impact of water shortages over the summit. The reservoirs are still empty and unless there is an awful lot of rain soon then restrictions next year are inevitable.
In any case, Victor is quite right, that there is no overall demand for marina spaces, at least in the short term—our own marina in the area has held its prices for the second year running. British Waterways should only permit new marinas anywhere if they are filled exclusively with people who have online moorings—rather than the 10% they do now.
David Hymers |
