APTSec's eyes and ears were drawn to a rather disturbing item on the BBC news this morning.
The BBC news web site reports:
"Thousands of people enjoy the peace and quiet of Britain's canals every year. However, the calm waters could soon become a political battleground.
Environment ministers are apparently determined to resist plans by the Treasury to sell off the land and properties that line the waterways. The sale could raise £500m. "
You can find the news report film here and the essence, if I have understood correctly, is that British Waterways manage and maintain Britain's Canals at a cost of £120m per annum and 40% of this money comes from income generated by the £500m property portfolio that BW has. If the Treasury sells the assets - bang goes the income.
Given that it was announced in October that Scotland's first official canoe trail is to be created along 62 miles of waterways from Fort William to Inverness and that British Waterways Scotland estimates that about 2,500 enthusiasts already use the canal each year and spend £75,000 locally, to lose this revenue would surely be a blow.
Check out the Caledonian Canal News via British Waterways Leisure web site, Waterscape.com
Did you know that "...over half of the UK population live within five miles of a canal or river..."?
Sorry, but you don't understand correctly!
ReplyDeleteBW's primary responsibility, as confirmed by government, is to maintain the waterways in satisfactory condition. This requires about £125m pa but BW only spends about £95m pa of its £200m pa income in doing so. It recent years BW have made £209m from property sales - not one penny of that money was used to maintain the system. Last year BW lost almost £100m due to property speculation. It expects to lose a further £25m this year. The majority of money that BW uses for maintaining the system comes from government grant (i.e. the taxpayer). The majority of the balance comes from boaters in licence and mooring fees and BW's other business interests (excluding property)
Due to BW's reluctance to perform its primary responsibility, the canal system is already in decline - a recent poll suggested that almost 98% of respondents agreed.
The answer is that, either government should take away BW's portfolio and provide extra funding or they should ensure that the portfolio is used to maintain the system.
Allan Richards
Thank you for your comment.
ReplyDeleteAllan
ReplyDeleteI don't think that is an accurate representation.
The amount BW requires to maintain the waterways in a 'steady state' of repair is £125 million/pa. In fact, for the last several years they have only had £95-100 million available and so each year we are seeing a growing backlog of maintenance as as well as a gradual decline in the state of parts of the waterways.
According to the Accounts for 2008/8, BW funded the waterways with £113 million commercial income (mainly from property, boating licenses and mooring fees), £36 million fomr 3rd party contributions to works and £74 million in Govt grants. This totals £223 million.
Their expenditure was £100 million on maintenance & major works, £75 million on operating expenses and £32 million contribution to 3rd party projects.
If BW's property portfolio is sold, the income from rentals etc will decline and thus the overall funding that is available to run the waterways will decline. That means that Govt would either have to increase the annual grant or the waterways will inevitably revert to the waste lands that they were 20 years ago.
Will Chapman
www.saveourwaterways.org
Will
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment and for leaving both your name and the details of the web site.
I believe that my post accurately represented the information that was presented by the BBC.
I did contact the Beeb and I spoke to a Breakfast show producer; I now understand a little more about the rational behind the story.