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THE above headline is not ours but taken from Private Eye which came out late last week, writes Allan Richards.
As the Eye (as Private Eye calls itself) is required reading for every MP (or rather prospective MP!) it will, no doubt, raise awareness amongst politicians regarding the mutualisation of BW.
Going for the jugular
The article wades right in, going straight for the jugular, by calling the mutualisation decision miraculous, and quoting government '
put the waterways on a long-term sustainable footing while reducing the ongoing cost to the taxpayer'.
If government can achieve both these mutually exclusive objectives it will be a miracle! Perhaps some plan exists to turn all the water in our canals into wine at no cost to the taxpayer.
£30m shortfall
The article goes on to state that BW have a £30m shortfall just to keep the canals in their current state and highlights the massive £290m maintenance backlog quoting narrowboatworld as its source.
Following that the Eye then talks about the 'charity locked' property portfolio pointing out that BW actually lost money on it in 2008/9, and will do so again in 2009/10. However, we must correct the Eye's figure for BW's losses. The Eye, has them as £33m for 2008/9 quoting its own previous article but they were actually nearer £100m. Indeed, Robin Evans, BW's Chief Executive, confirmed very recently that the exact figure was a £73.6m after tax.
Quangocrat
Private Eye suggests in addition that BW is also in need of money to pay its bosses, labelling its chief executive as the fourth highest paid quangocrat with a salary of £284,041 including a bonus of £61,500. Which is £87,000 more than the Prime Minister!
Going for the jugular for the second time the Eye asks 'Would independence from government allow BWB's bosses to pay themselves more?'
The short answer to that, unfortunately, is yes!
[The day that Private Eye was published saw the number of daily visitors to the Home page of narrowboatworld leap to 10,557.]
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