On December 11th 2007, Will Chapman of S.O.W. joined around 30 other representatives of user groups at a meeting called by Waterways Minister, Jonathan Shaw. Here is his report of that meeting:
As would be expected, in general, those attending the meeting held senior positions in the organisations that they represented and so there was no doubt that the Minister had made sure that he was facing the full force of waterways interests. However, I wasn't aware of anyone representing cyclists (CTC - 55,000 members), anglers (NFA, although there was a representative from the Fisheries and Angling Conservation Trust) or rowing (ARA - 23,000).
To give an idea of the weight of representations there, I totted up the number of members of the main groups - Ramblers -140,000 members; RYA - 103,000 (and 500,000 if affiliated clubs are included); BCU - 60,000, AWCC - 20,000, IWA - 18,000, BMF - 1,500 members employing 30,000, etc. Those alone total in excess of 250,000 members to which I suppose we could add the 40,000+ that signed our petitions. Of course, some of these numbers are members of more than one user-group, nevertheless, the representation was impressive.
The Minister made a point of walking around the table and introducing himself to those that he had not already met. I took the opportunity to present him with a SOW cap adding that I didn't expect him to wear it at the meeting. He seemed touched by the gesture.
The meeting started with the Minster reviewing the current situation and set the meeting off on a relatively positive note by announcing that he expected BW share of the CSR negotiation to be around Flat Cash - maybe a little more or maybe a little less. He expected the final figure would be announced mid-February.
At the Adjournment debate held earlier in the day, he had neglected to answer the question about the strong rumours about a further £130 million being cut from DEFRA's budget. When asked about this he commented "It just goes to show that you can't believe everything you read in the press". On further pressing, he confirmed categorically that he expected the settlement to be based on Flat Cash.
He also made a point of saying that they had been working hard on establishing the idea put forth by the EFRA sub-committee, to establish an Interdepartmental Working Group. He had been in touch with his counter-parts at the Treasury, Department of Transport, Department of Culture, Media and Sport, Department of Communities & Local Government and the Department of Health. The first meeting would take place on the 17th December.
The Minister also said that they were looking at ways to allow BW to borrow; at the moment BW's charter restricts them in this regard.
The Minister confirmed that he was aware of the need to gain more community involvement and to ensure that BW took due care in the preservation of our heritage.
David Pearce (AWCC) raised the point that what the Minster had said so far concerned only BW and wondered what the Minister could say about EA navigations.
Julia Simpson from the Environment Agency (EA) said that one of EA's main concerns was to unlock more commercial opportunities.
The Minister pointed out that the EA case was more complex in that there was a mix of funding for flood control and navigation.
Julia Simpson said that legislation influencing the waterways was outmoded and that a great deal of time and effort was wasted trying to find ways around existing laws. It was suggested that a Waterways Bill was needed. While the Minster thought this might be a good idea, he pointed out that this would not be something that was likely to be achieved in this Parliament.
John Edmonds (IWAC) pointed out that secondary legislation was a quicker process and might be worth considering.
John Dodwell made the point that it wasn't reasonable for a turkey farmer's mistake to jeopardise the future and wellbeing of the entire waterway system.
The Minister noted that the well-being of the waterways were vital to employment and trade in rural areas.
When asked, Jonathan Bryant (BW - Customer Services) pointed out that BW spent around £100 million per annum on the upkeep of the waterways but the real need was £125 million. The shortfall of £25 million had an effect on expenditure in areas like dredging, vegetation management and reducing the maintenance backlog.
The ongoing review into ways that BW might best be structured was raised and a number of people pointed out that BW had not instructed the consultants to make contact with stakeholders. Those in attendance thought that this was a mistake and urged the Minister to consider the issue.
John Edmonds (IWAC) made the point that the Waterways for Tomorrow document needed updating.
Michael Shefras (TBA) noted that any strategy would only work if a funding continuum was established.
Rex Walden (RBOA) suggested that the Minster might look more closely at the issue of residential boating. Residential boating was a fact of life but current legislation was not clear and interpreted in different ways across the country. Giving himself as an example, he said that he was currently living on a boat illegally because there were no residential moorings available. It was an issue that BW seemed to ignore and many marinas refused to even consider residential boats because of unclear regulations.
The discussion moved on to the Interdepartmental Working Group and John Dodwell asked the Minister about the structure of the group. He hoped that each department would be represented by someone with sufficient authority to carry weight at their respective ministries. The Minister made the point that the group had been set up directly with his counterparts, thus implying that this should not be a problem.
The Minster offered to call future meetings of the current group to review progress made after each IWG session.
John Edmonds (IWAC) said he was encouraged by the way the Defra had been following the recommendations made by the EFRA sub-committee report and also those made by IWAC, in particular the issues that had social implications.
The Minister noted that Defra were currently preparing a paper on navigations.
The meeting closed with several delegates thanking the Minister for progress made to date.
(Will Chapman (as recalled with the aid of brief notes), December 18th 2007)