Licence hike pays for moorings fiasco

BRITISH Waterways Marketing Director, Simon Salem, told boaters:  'The funding position is no less easy at present, but in the light of the difficult economic climate we have decided not to increase the net of VAT fee levels for the financial year beginning April 2010'.

That was at a licence fee consultation, and was a year ago, writes Allan Richards.

Now BW has the begging bowl out saying 'In the light of the continuing difficult economic circumstances', it wishes to increase licence fees net of VAT by a hefty 5.1%.

Mooring auctions

Suffice to say, by contributing £0.85m extra next year boaters will be paying for BW's failed mooring auctions policy.

Narrowboatworld has recently informed the public that one in five online berths at BWML marinas is empty. However, boaters may not remember an earlier article concerning BW's directly managed moorings. These moorings are auctioned when vacant but, as reported, 80% of them fail to sell.

Rather than abolishing the auction system, which we never wanted in the first place, BW has allowed berths to remain empty with the inevitable effect on income. BW's mooring income will drop by an estimated £0.5m this year. What will happen next year due to BW's failure to scrap moorings auctions is anyone's guess.

Putting it another way, income from boaters (moorings plus licence fees) is in decline. Rather than resolve the cause of that decline—its moorings auctions policy, BW expects boaters to contribute more via licence fees.

Rebate

Would BW like to justify its reduction in spend on the waterways this year? Instead of spending £101.6m, as it has done in the last two years, it will only be spending £89.2m, a drop of 12%. Despite this, its income from licence fees has remained constant at £16.8m. Perhaps we should be given a 12% rebate rather than being asked for a greater contribution.

It is not surprising that BW have forgotten to tell us about its massive drop in maintenance spend. But where has the drop in spend gone? Is it being used to prop up ailing joint ventures? Whatever the truth of the matter, BW needs to explain why it is spending £12.4m less than a year ago.

Imagination

Was it imagination? Was BW's chief executive tasked with making cuts last year to enable savings of £10m pa? Certainly, he claimed bonus for savings. Indeed, he was awarded bonus for savings including finding that BW were spending £50,000 a year on telephone lines they did not use!

A drop in the ocean

Obviously, £0.85m will make absolutely no dent in the £130m per annum that BW claim they need to spend every year in order to stop the waterways deteriorating. It will make no dent in the maintenance backlog which will stand at £340m at the end of this company year. It will, however, allow one director, Simon Salem, to recover his losses on directly managed moorings for which, no doubt, he has been set a target.