The BMF has joined force with the Inland Waterways Association, National Association of Boat Owners, Royal Yachting Association and others to campaign against the funding cuts that every agency funded by DEFRA is facing including Natural England, the Environment Agency as well as British Waterways - this will have an adverse impact across all waterways and users whether as boaters, nature lovers, waterways workers, walkers, anglers or kids just messing about on canals with canoes.
The background to these cuts is that there was a black hole in DEFRA's 2006-7 budgets due to the Department having been fined by the EU for delays in the Rural Payments Agency and to overspends associated with Avian Bird Flu.
BW announced 180 job losses before April 2007. That realised £5 million of the £12 million they needed to find in that financial year. Over the next few years £60 million may be taken from their budget. The EA Board have already taken a decision to increase the cost of boat licences on their rivers by 12% next year with the prospect of increases totaling 43% over the next 3 years. Both these actions are just the start of strategies that navigation authority management must now adopt to balance their books.
These cuts to navigation authority funding will result in an inevitable decline in our inland waterways with the prospect of some canal closures. As the waterways decline so will businesses and jobs also decline and we will lose the benefit that our waterways bring to sport and recreation, social inclusion and regeneration.
The early part of our campaign was focused on briefing members of Parliament and getting them to bring pressure to bear upon DEFRA Ministers. An Early Day Motion (EDM) was tabled in the House of Commons and our members encouraged as many MPs as possible to put their name to the EDM. (It is too late to do this now.)
It is important that as many people as possible write to their MP pointing out the implications for our inland waterways. You should write to your MP in your own words but bringing out the following key points:.
• Write to DEFRA Secretary of State, Hilary Benn MP (copied to Waterways Minister, Jonathan Shaw MP).
• These funding cuts will lead to a deterioration in our country's inland waterways which are a national asset enjoyed by many.
• Over recent years our waterways have been a catalyst for regeneration in both urban and rural areas.
• Decline of our waterways will have economic impact in respect of jobs, small businesses and spending in the local economy
From the BMF website.