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Few of the thousands of people who today enjoy cruising
along Britain's canals will ever have heard of Alderman Sir Frank Price. Yet in
fact had it not been for him the canal system run by the British Waterways
Board would have long since been disbanded, broken up and sold to the private
sector. All is explained in Alderman Sir Frank Price's autobiography Being
there.
He describes how in 1962 the British Waterways Board emerged
from the British Transport Commission. From 1968 for sixteen years as its
chairman he fought to retain independence for the canals. His accounts of
battles with successive governments make interesting reading.
For the generations born and living in Birmingham in the
1950s and 1960s Frank Price might be remembered as "Mr Birmingham". He was a
Brummie through and through. His descriptions of childhood life and the back
streets of pre-war Birmingham prove the equal of Frank McCourt's
autobiographical account of Dublin poverty in Angela's Ashes.
Following a period as Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Sir Frank
became recognised nationally and undertook the Chairmanships of Telford New
Town and the British Waterways Board.
Governments, both Conservative and Labour, tried to sell
Britain's loss-making canal system to the newly-established water companies.
Throughout his sixteen years as Chairman of British Waterways Board he fought
battle after battle to save the system. He takes us into conversations with
cabinet ministers of the highest rank, many of whom he fell out with including
his old friend Denis Howell, Members of the Inland Waterways Association will
find those chapters a compulsive read.
He tells of his endeavors to introduce modern commercial
traffic, of how the Hull dockers sabotaged the BACAT barge-carrying system, of
how he offered to give the Regent's Canal Dock to the striking dockers. (The
union rep Jack Dash advised the strikers to refuse the offer!)
Private Eye made Frank Price, now Sir Frank, their
target. He describes how their allegations raised eyebrows in the highest
circles of Government. My conclusion is that crossing swords with so many
influential people denied him a seat in the House of Lords. It is all in the
book, you must judge for yourself.
Someone like Sir Frank Price was needed to unveil the
post-war history of the canals. He was in a position of influence. His
opponents and colleagues loved and hated him in equal proportions. What neither
could do was to ignore him.
Frank writes in the first person. Conversations with the
great and the good are told verbatim, whether with Prince Phillip, Princess
Margaret of the Prime Minister, He freely admits to name-dropping and this
givers the book its special interest. You are eavesdropping. How accurately you
hear you must decide for yourself.
Michael Heseltine once told him "I admire you, Frank, you
are a pro. My predecessors underestimated you and allowed you to drag them onto
your battleground and then knock them for six.
I found the 436 pages of Being There compulsive
reading. Once started it is difficult to put the book down. Order it from
Waterstones or Amazon for £11.99.
Review by Dr A L S Jackson, JP,
contributed privately by the author. The opinions expressed are entirely
his. |
