THE recently formed Fund Britain’s Waterways (FBW) is calling on the government to stop inland waterways falling into disrepair by increasing its funding.
This is a coalition of organisations we are told of hundreds of thousands of users and supporters of inland waterways, and is campaigning for national and local government to act now and protect the public benefit and natural capital of our waterways.
Quantified at £6.1bn
However, its statement—'The combined annual economic and social value of CRT waterways alone has been quantified as £6.1bn, including cost savings of £1.1bn for the NHS from active use of the waterways and towpaths' is ludicrous.
Such crazy, totally unfounded and needless to say, unquantified, statements can hardly impress any one, let alone the government.
As an example FBW told of the consequences of failing to maintain waterway infrastructure being clearly shown by the evacuation of 1,500 local residents in case the dam at Toddbrook Reservoir collapsed in 2019. This event it stated has shown the need for increased spend on its reservoirs of up to £25m per year, but it is as if the lessons have not yet been learnt.
Millions wasted
A poor example. For the inquest pointed directly to Canal & River Trust not even undertaking normal inspections—that is no great drain on finances—that would have seen the state of the dam, but it was not inspected, so not maintained. Hence the result of millions wasted.
And the present state of the waterways is purely the result of the decision to 'wait until it breaks then mend it', that certainly does not work with such old structures and proves more costly than the former British Waterways system of spending on preventative maintenance, that in those days kept the waterways open.
Preventative maintenance
Unlike this month for instance, with 46 waterway closures in 27 days. Preventative maintenance would have stopped all this hassle for the poor boaters, and at less cost than those contractors dragging-out its work, so often from Monday to Friday, and at what inflated cost?
Surely, Fund British Waterways needs better that crazy unfounded statistics and poor examples of failures to have it impress the government to give Canal & River Trust more money.