A simple question

WITH regard to the CaRT/IWA partnership asking for donations for the breach on the Trent and Mersey Canal, can we ask a simple question? Writes Peter Ponting.

Who runs the canal system, and who purportedly claims they are saving the canal system?

Annual licence fee

If a road bridge collapses, it is the highways agency who do everything in their powers to repair the bridge, that is why people pay car tax. Likewise boaters pay an annual licence fee, to travel the canal network and have good value for the money they pay.

It is the neglect in managing the canal network, with high wages to the top brass including bonuses, that has led to this sad situation.

Fail to deliver

Staff shortages and mismanagement are common in most business practices today, with outsourcing being the flavour of the day, to people who promise the earth, but fail to deliver.

Blaming the designers of the canal is just an excuse to cover up incompetence within the structure designed to protect the system.

Incompetence of the past

So my advice is simple. Do not donate. BW/Cart/IWA have been having a good time for the last 30 years, so let them start paying for the incompetence of their past. Perhaps they will then understand that boaters like ourselves have no confidence in them, and will not donate further funds until they understand that resources are needed to sustain a canal network, not fat pay cheques to a committee who have little or no idea of what is needed.