Tied the knot

THE Inland Waterways Association (IWA) and Canal & River Trust (CART) have finally tied the knot—with a Memorandum of Understanding, signed at CART's first public meeting yesterday (Thursday).

We are told that this agreement is designed to recognise the mutual interests of the two charitable organisations and establish areas of co-operation as well as outlining specific commitments and responsibilities.

Robin Evans, Chief Executive of CART explained:

"We already work closely with IWA and this agreement both formalises and acts as a catalyst to that relationship. By working together and building on each other's skills and experience we will make a greater impact on the waterways and people's enjoyment of them than either of our organisations could have done alone."

Clive Henderson, The Inland Waterways Association's National Chairman, stated:

"IWA sees that there are areas of shared interest with the Trust, where pooling our resources may help better engage with local communities to generate support from local people to care for and help maintain their local stretch of waterways, and hopefully open up new areas for fundraising."

At the election of Trust members, the four independent boaters' positions were all taken up by members of the IWA, with narrowboatworld pointing out that this was hardly independent.  It seems it is now even less so.