CaRT fails to honour grant agreement

THE Canal & River Trust has failed to honour its grant agreement with Defra, writes Allan Richards.

Specifically, it has failed to provide ‘Publication Data' within the timescale set by section 7.1 of the agreement for its last financial year (2014/15). Whilst it is very early days, ultimate failure to provide this information could result in a reduction, suspension or termination of its grant.

Required to publish

Under its grant funding agreement with Defra, CaRT is required to publish certain information (known as ‘Publication Data') by 1st July each year at the latest. Last year, it published the information just within the required time scale. It showed:

• The condition of CaRT's waterways had deteriorated from the previous year.
• An unacceptable number of closure days due to unplanned stoppages.
• That, on the housing front, it had only completed 70 residential units against its forecast of 427.

More bad news

It is not known why CaRT has decided not to publish information within the timescale agreed with Defra, but the suspicion is that it is further bad news with the problems reported a year ago still unresolved.