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WHAT about us boaters—how will we fare in a BW mutual trust? And for that matter is a mutual trust for the waterways even a starter. The whole bottom line is money. How do you finance BW as a mutual trust. Who pays what? And this is where the problems start, writes David Cragg.
The problem for us boaters is that boating groups—no matter how strong in representation and purpose—represent a small minority of people compared to the numbers of 'waterways users' that BW media men will say use the canals. We contribute now to waterways upkeep—and would expect to contribute (probably more) to a BW mutual trust in the future. But what about the massive non-boating canal-using group of walkers, cyclists and all the rest?
Don't pay directly
At the moment most of this majority don't of course pay directly for using the waterways facilities. They may pay (currently) via local and national taxes but no direct payments are made to BW who get money for this lot as part of their government grant (money for which comes from taxes) and from payments from various councils—money paid to them as council taxes.
So currently all the money the majority pay is taken without any right to resist rather than being paid directly to BW by people for being allowed to walk, cycle, etc., using BW facilities. So they currently get taxed and pay 'or else'. But given the choice, what people won't do is pay if they don't have to for something they have always used and think it is their right to use—and that includes the waterways towpaths and other facilities! This was shown on the K&A when BW tried to charge cyclists to use the expensive cycle track they had turned the towpath into at enormous expense. The result—the cyclists used the towpath and refused to pay. So BW, as has happened elsewhere, backed down and they bike for free.
Extract boaters' money
Now before you say boaters could refuse to pay unless... We all know they can't. BW knows where you live and where your boat is, and can extract money via the law from you. Or they can simply stop us using the locks by chaining them up and the police arresting anyone who tampers with BW's chains.
Going back to those who don't pay to use canals let's move away from the canals for a moment and use the roads as an example... Here it is local councils (using tax revenues) who maintain roads and footpaths—the cost of both of which will be included in the price of a house if you buy one on a new estate. People might complain about state of the roads but no-one is going to hand over money to the council voluntarily to improve their local ones if the council won't.
Non starter
In the same way the idea of people giving money to a trust like a canal one to keep things nice is a non-starter—most will not while still expecting full use—and who can stop them.
The canals, towpaths, etc are, to most people a given place for dog shit, a place to walk, cycle and so on. Okay, there are a few canal sights to see—like the Anderton Lift—but, unlike the National Trust, a BW trust doesn't have hundreds of stately homes full of stuff for people to stare at, thousands of miles of lovely coasts, interesting houses like the Beatles ones in Liverpool. Compared to that lot the canals are a non-starter.
Get it free
People think they own the countryside, have the right to roam and cycle, and get it free. They like their taxes to pay for it—its government's and local authorities who often feel it is money wasted that could be better spent getting votes from massive impressive projects elsewhere.
One has only to look at the original Monty restoration to see this as Welsh Secretary Peter Walker (Spit) refused to sign to get Euro money as he wanted it spend on winning votes down south. (He got neither money nor votes and we didn't get a Monty restored by 1996.) Since then (still using the Monty example) the restoration monies have been sparse and currently the aim of buying bricks using public subscription brings in little compared to what is given to the National Trust, the RSPB (nice birds) and others by public donation.
Not a winner
The bottom line on this is that canals are just not big public donation winners. Stately homes, birds, hospices, children in need, staving folks abroad yes, canals no. And no matter how they dress it up BW must know this, and having seen how the Waterways Trust has staggered along in the last few years must have a pretty good idea that a BW mutual trust won't work without big money coming in from somewhere.
At this point, knowing what a shifty lot they are, one wonders if BW have any real long term plans, or expect to grab the money and run.
And what exactly has really being cooked up behind the closed doors of fortress BW?
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