Emperor's new clothes
IT MUST seem to many people, myself included, when reading narrowboatworld just lately that there is only gloom to be seen in any article relating to Canal & River Trust (CART), writes Orph Mable.
Yet all the ‘detail' emanating from British Waterways and the new Trustees is positive and forward looking with very little emphasis on caution or anything that would detract from the ‘New Charity'. So why is there so much doom here?
'Strange' statistics
The clue must be in the title—narrowboatworld—aimed at the inland boating fraternity of the canals and waterways. That is why the analogy to ‘The Emperor's New Clothes' seems to fit so well when applied to CART. To those non-boating people who do not see beyond the smiles and ‘strange' statistics proffered by CART all may seem rosy, but I, and other contributors have to tell it as we see it. There seems to be little beyond the smile!
Having just read Allan Richards latest article (narrowboatworld Friday 1st June) which pulls together several of the financial ‘facts' with reference to Maintenance Shortfall, I am further dismayed.
Cannot be achieved
I recall at the end of the 1990's and into the early 2000's that the focus was in reducing the maintenance backlog. Under the present (and future) regime it would appear from this and other information that all that BW/CART want to achieve is to retain the maintenance ‘status quo'! But worse, as Allan points out, is that even this cannot be achieved with the level of funding available to CART.
So what of the future for the canals and waterways under the CART umbrella? I am definitely fearful for the short-term situation, bearing in mind that the livelihoods of employees and myself is tied to the well being of the local inland waterways and associated leisure industry.
Walkers, cyclists, naturalists (birdwatchers etc.) and industrial archaeologists put very few coppers in my hat. We depend greatly on boaters just to exist. If they continue to lose heart, get priced away from a deteriorating system then, alas, we go too.