The dead sheep returns
IT IS over six months since narrowboatworld commented on the Inland Waterways Association's condemnation of British Waterways' 'fat cats', writes Allan Richards.
We labelled IWA's article criticising British Waterways director's salaries as as like being 'savaged by a dead sheep'. Older readers will remember the saying. It was used by Dennis Healey on being criticised by the mild mannered Tory minister Geoffrey Howe some 30 year ago.
Hidden away
Now it seems the IWA dead sheep has returned!
Whilst narrowboatworld has been carrying a hard hitting story about Defra's reluctance to admit a maintenance backlog of about a third of a billion and a current annual funding gap of £50m, it seems that IWA prefer to hide it away on some of its website figures, that confirm we are in the right ball park.
In a campaign news article criticising government's proposed funding package they state 'IWA's best estimates based upon published information is that British Waterways needs in the region of £150m per annum for direct expenditure on the waterways in England and Wales'.
Must wait
Whilst we must wait for British Waterways' annual report to tell us how much it actually spent on its waterways last year, our estimate of a £50m funding gap was based on a projected spend of £90m against an estimated £140m needed. IWA are suggesting that the amount needed in future is £150m.
Will British Waterways and Defra at last come clean, and admit to this level of underfunding? Not a chance! They would rather we are diverted into thinking up a name for the new charity rather than demand some straight answers to very basic funding questions.
Wrong signal
As previously reported in narrowboatworld, last year British Waterways' Board committed £4m to buy more marinas for its wholly owned subsidiary British Waterways Marinas Ltd, and also spent £9m in a failed attempt to prevent the pub partnership falling into administration. That's £13m of public money that could have been invested in our waterways.
Clive Henderson, IWA's chairman, is an observer on British Waterways' Board. As such he will be fully aware of the signal it is sending to government with its recent spending spree. Why should government give British Waterways or its successor more money only to see it spent on failed business ventures rather than the waterways?
Dead sheep
As with IWA's criticism of directors' salaries, its criticism of governments proposed funding for the new waterways charity will have about as much effect as being savaged by a dead sheep.
Perhaps it's time for IWA to return the dead sheep to the leaking lock where it was found and start telling it like it is.
It's not about government wanting Big Society for the waterways. It's not about IWA wanting a National Waterways Conservancy. It's about government dumping the waterways on the public because it does not wish to fund them at the required level, or sort out the mess that British Waterways has been allowed to become.