LUFF WADES IN TO WATERWAYS FUNDING ROW
Mid Worcestershire MP Peter Luff has criticised the
government's decision to slash funding of the country's leading canal and river
organisation, British Waterways. He has written a sharply worded letter to
Barry Gardiner, the waterways minister in the Department for Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
Peter's constituency includes sections of two waterways
maintained by British Waterways - the Worcester and Birmingham Canal and the
River Severn - and he is a supporter of the organisation's leadership in the
plans for the re-opening of the Droitwich canals.
Peter explained,
"DEFRA notified British Waterways in March that its
grant would be cut by 5% (£3.1 million). British Waterways subsequently
adjusted its budgets, but in August DEFRA announced that British Waterway's
funding would be cut by a further 7.5% (£4.5 million) with the >
possibility of a further 2.5% (£1.5 million) being slashed in November.
This lower level of funding is to continue through 2007 and perhaps until 2012.
It is a response largely to the massive problems in the management of the farm
grants scheme by the Rural payments Agency but also to the expenditure on avian
flu."
In his letter, Peter says,
"I completely fail to see why the difficulties of the
Rural Payments Agency - caused by a bad policy, badly implemented by DEFRA
ministers - should lead to a funding reduction in other parts of DEFRA.
"Why should British Waterways pay the price for such
spectacular incompetence at political level?
"I am left completely breathless. The problems of the
Rural Payments Agency should be met out of the general reserve, and not out of
DEFRA's specific budget.
"I understand there is generally a challenging climate
for public expenditure at present with the Chancellor imposing cuts pretty well
across the board except in a few key protected areas. If British Waterways were
just being cut in line with those reductions elsewhere in government although I
might be unhappy, I would not be vitriolic.
"DEFRA made a mess of the Rural Payments Agency as you
and I know, but I completely fail to understand why the reaction of the
government is to cut the grants to bodies that bear no share of the blame
whatsoever and have indeed behaved with exemplary efficiency. Is this any way
to run a government? Reward failure and penalise success - it hardly sounds
like a motto for good government.
"Can you explain to me why British Waterways should pay
the price for bungling elsewhere in the Department?"
Peter Luff
Member of Parliament for Mid Worcestershire
Chairman, DTI
Select Committee |
