Boat numbers down 9%
NOTWITHSTANDING the Canal & River Trust (CaRT) Annual General Meeting being told that boat number are up, its own documentation shows that this is untrue, with boat number actually falling again in 2013/14, writes Allan Richards.
Over the last three years the number of boats with 12 month licences has fallen by an average of 1000 boats a year.
35,241 to 32,018
In its 2010/11 Annual Report (page 29), British Waterways gave the number of craft with long term (i.e. 12 month) licences on its waterways in England and Wales as 35,241. This is the highest number ever recorded.
CaRT's 2013/14 Annual Report (page 49) shows that the number has now dropped to 32,018. This represents a drop of over 9% or an average of 3% a year.
Not acknowledged
CaRT has consistently failed to acknowledge that the number of boats on its waterways is in decline and is still clinging to the figure of 35,000. Worse still, it has restated and obscured figures in its reports in an attempt to hide the problem.
The latest preposterous misdirection is to claim in a press release that boat numbers have increased by 0.4% this year by using a newly introduced measure different to that normally used.
However, the Trust's first Annual Report 2012/13 gives number of long term (12 month) licences as 33,227, whereas this years (2013/14) gives the figure as 32,018, a drop of over 1,200 (3.6%).
Not published
Perhaps if CaRT published its Annual Reports prior to its Annual Meetings, it would give attendees the opportunity to study them and ask appropriate questions.
An appropriate question in this instance might be ‘British Waterways' 2010/11 Annual report stated that there were 35,241 boats on its waterways in England and Wales. Your 2013/14 Annual Report says that number is now 32,018. Instead, of telling us that numbers of boats have increased by 0.4% and we still have 35,000 boats on the system, please tell us what you intend to do to halt the decline.'
Avoid questions
Then again, the reason that CaRT publishes after its annual meeting may well be to avoid questions such as this!
(One does not have to look far for CaRT's claim of 35,000 boats on its system. The following link is to a ‘Corporate Adoption Handbook' produced just over six months ago with an introduction by chief executive, Richard Parry:
http://canalrivertrust.org.uk/media/library/5845.pdf
Another example, is a Trustee, John Dodwell claiming that boat numbers have risen from 25,000 to 35,000 but are now static: