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Tony Collins, local organiser, writes:-
Twenty boats including seven working boats crammed into the
turning basin and Hawkesbury Junction in Coventry earlier today. They were
protesting about the cuts to British Waterways Grant-in Aid (GIA) via the
Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). It was one of twenty
six events taking place nationally over the weekend of 25th/26th November. The
boaters were joined by hundreds of local people also sympathetic to the cause.
The protesters fear that the cuts will have an adverse effect on the safety,
maintenance and ultimately the integrity of the fragile 200 year old plus
inland waterway system of England and Wales, much of which has been restored
and cleaned up by volunteer labour. Indeed the very first canal restoration by
volunteers was here in Coventry.
DEFRA has indicated that the budget cuts will continue for a
further five years and amount to a total of around £60m. When one
considers that the annual grant is normally in the order of £67m it can
be seen what a devastating effect the cuts will have. Already British
Waterways(BW) have announced 180 job losses which equates roughly to 10% of
their workforce. The really shameful thing about this is that the cuts come
about because of a problem over which they have no control and indeed are
nothing to with the waterways at all. DEFRA has got itself into trouble with
Europe because it found itself incapable of administering the annual payments
to farmers via the Rural Payments Agency (RPA). As a result it has been
deprived of funds from the Common Agricultural Policy. This, together with
other administrative blunders has resulted on a deficit of £200m. As it
is against EU rules to allow recipients of the RPA to suffer, (Not something
that anyone would wish upon them) Other scapegoats have to be found. BW is in
the firing line.
The short term aim of the protests is to reverse the cuts
and help to make sure that the canals remain safe from lack of maintenance.
This is no idle threat. One canal already has suffered two breaches this year,
the main North-South route on the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN), the
Netherton Tunnel, is in a serious condition. The towpath has sunk below water
level and this indicates a problem with the invert. This could be very
expensive to repair. It only needs another catastrophic failure like these and
it may beyond the ability of BW to pay for the repairs.
That many canals have been or are being restored by
volunteers seems lost on those in government. There is a tremendous amount of
goodwill towards the rivers and canals which may recede if the government do
not recognise the efforts put in by ordinary people. A recent Early Day Motion
(EDM) supporting the cause and deprecating the cuts was signed by almost a
third of the House of Commons. The signatures included those of members of all
parties within the house. This cross party issue shows that at least some of
our representatives in Parliament share the view that these budget cuts are
unfair.
This campaign will not go away. It will carry on and include
a floating protest out side the Houses of Parliament on January 16th
2007 and later a petition calling for the cancellation of the budget cuts will
be handed in to Number 10 to supplement the protests.
The canals are used people from all walks of life. The only
direct contributors are boaters and anglers. But it is estimated that there are
ten million visits to waterways every year, by walkers, cyclists, birdwatchers
and other wild life enthusiasts. Even people who just like watching the boats!
In the medium term enthusiasts feel that DEFRA is the wrong
agency to be servicing the BW grant. It would sit more readily within the realm
of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), as the recreational
aspect of the waterways has a more direct link with that agency than a
principally agricultural department. About a third of BW's income is derived
from it's property portfolio. An endowment of property from the government
could enable BW to be free of GIA requirement in the longer term. With this
could come the navigational responsibility for all navigable waters freeing the
Environment Agency (EA) from the onerous task of looking after some of the
navigation aspects of some rivers. EA have no property portfolio from which to
support their remit. |
