The crumbling waterways
NINE months—eight failures, with the embankment collapse on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal at Rishton, between Blackburn and Burnley, on 11th September again emphasising the parlous state of Canal & River Trust (CaRT) waterways, writes Allan Richards.
The canal is now dewatered and closed to both boats and pedestrians with CaRT warning that it may not open until the end of November. Initial repair estimate is in the region of £300,000. No doubt this figure will rise.
Losing count
Despite this being yet another major failure, it has received remarkably little attention on twitter, facebook or forums. Perhaps boaters are suffering 'asset and infrastructure failure fatigue'. Maybe they have simply lost count of the number of failures that have led to closure of waterways since CaRT's Trustees agreed to take them over.
On the other hand, they may be diverted into believing that mooring or continuous cruisers are the big issue facing our waterways. Then again, perhaps it is that accusation made by a Trustee, John Dodwell, (for which he has never apologised) that they don't pay their way that is preoccupying them.
One per month
Thanks to 'publication data' it can be categorically stated that, in its first nine months, CaRT had eight unplanned closures caused by asset or infrastructure failure. These failures led to parts of the system being closed for some 375 days.
That's pretty scary stuff when you consider that CaRT's trustees were led to believe that such infrastructure failures were a rare occurrence.
Rare? It's almost one per month!
What is publication data?
But what is 'publication data'? Put simply it is information that CaRT must publish annually as one of its obligations regarding its grant agreement with Defra. Failure to publish or failure to comply with certain standards within 'publication data' means that Defra is able to withhold all or part of its grant.
In effect, this means that CaRT is obliged to publish information which it might otherwise chose to withhold.
Visitor numbers
Another item of information that CaRT might have preferred to keep quiet about but has to publish is visitor numbers. Many will have read the numerous articles in narrowboatworld concerning the confusing figures that British Waterways has produced in the past. These often seem plucked from thin air without explanation.
We will 'cut through the crap' and simply refer to the targets that were set for Robin Evans to double visitor numbers from 3.6m in 2003/4 to 7.2m in 2011/12 (The Evans achievements). The equivalent 'publication data' figure for 2012/13 is 3.2m! Even taking into account that the earlier figures included Scotland, it is safe to say that visitor numbers have actually declined over the last ten years rather than doubled!
Again, scary stuff when you consider that visitor numbers are used as a proxy for the delivery of public benefit.
Volunteer numbers
For CaRT, volunteer numbers are the new visitor numbers. However, 'public data' again shows that for all the 'talking up' of volunteers and their contribution to the waterways, CaRT has real problems in this area.
The number of days' effort given by volunteers has not risen under CaRT!
CaRT's target was to record 40,000 volunteer days in its first nine months. 'Publication data' confirms that it missed this target by a country mile, recording less than three quarters of that number (29,044 days).
Indeed, volunteer days recorded for the whole of 2012/13 (three months British Waterways and nine months CaRT) gives volunteer days as 38,934. For comparison, the annual report for the last full year of British Waterways (2011/12) give volunteer days as 'almost 39,000'.
Put bluntly, volunteer numbers are stagnating under CaRT after showing a 60% improvement improvement in British Waterways' last full year.
How could they get it so wrong?
Boat numbers
Two figures that are not published via 'publication data' are boat numbers and 'Friends' numbers. It seems that government are, quite rightly, more concerned about the delivery of public benefit than CaRT's income from these two sources.
The increasing number of boats on British Waterways' waterways was one of its few success stories. However, boating is now in decline and has been for a couple of years. In 2010/11 there were 35,241 long term licences granted to boats on British Waterways' waterways in England and Wales. As of 31st March 2013 that number has fallen by over 2,000 to 33,227.
Perhaps CaRT thought it could stop the slide because they set themselves a stupid target to have 35,000 boats by March 2013. They failed!
However, this has not stopped one particular Trustee claiming that CaRT has 35,000 boats on its waterways.
'Friends' numbers
Even before CaRT published its first annual report, narrowboatworld warned that the first year figures for recruitment of friends would be poor (CaRT 'Friends' goes bust). The plan to recruit 7,000 'Friends' over each of its first ten years of operation hardly got out of the starting blocks with the official figure for those recruited and (most importantly) retained as donors being 2,199.
Sadly, CaRT has decided to mislead the public with its annual report by suggesting it has more than 2,700 'Friends' at the end of March 2013. The difference of more than 500 is accounted for by the high number of drop-outs who stop giving and are therefore no longer 'Friends'.
Undaunted, CaRT is now talking about recruiting 100,000 'Friends'!