18th September 2006

British Waterway's patrol officers have been continuing their crackdown on licence evasion. During the month of August, the patrol teams have recovered a record £81,000 of unpaid licence fee income, This was the highest monthly figure since BW introduced its new standards for tackling evasion in November 2005.

A record 16 boats were also seized during the month of August using Section 8 powers.

This is good news to the majority of boaters, who pay their licence fees on time, especially at a time when BW's income is seriously threatened. (see below)

In some cases, arrears of up to 3 years have been collected. In cases where no attempt is made to pay, boats have been seized.

BW gives as an example a narrowboat on the Calder and Hebble Navigation at Mirfield (above right), which had been unlicensed for 12 months and which was sold through brokerage to recover both overdue licence fee income and costs.

BW's Simon Salem said, "I'd like to remind law abiding boaters to display their licence and the boat's index number on both sides of the boat. Particularly important is that if you cover your boat in the winter, you must ensure that the index number is still clear for BW patrol officers to see. Otherwise you could end up as a problem statistic - which means money must be spent on following up these cases rather than repairing and improving the waterways."

18th September 2006

British Waterways is seeking to develop a national approach to discourage the dumping of shopping trolleys in waterways .

The dumping of trolleys in canals and rivers is a regular and growing cause for concern for both boaters and BW. In a special Spring Clean of canals in April 2006, 337 trolleys were cleared in just two weeks.

At present there are informal arrangements between local BW offices and some supermarkets for the return of trolleys. BW has met with the British Retail Consortium in an effort to establish a national approach to reducing the problem and to be able to be compensated for the work involved in clearing the trolleys.

BW's External Relations Manager, Eugene Baston (right) said: "The costs of continuous trolley clearance are growing and use up vital resources that could be invested into the waterways. Whilst discussions with the British Retail Consortium are in their early stages, we are confident that the solution to the number of trolleys blighting our waterways will be to work in partnership with the UK's major retailers."

9th August 2006

British Waterways has received shock news of a massive cut in its funding from DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs).

Funding for British Waterways comes from both DEFRA and the Scottish Executive, in addition to a small income from BW's commercial ventures and local authorities. BW had budgeted to receive £73.5 million in funding this year - £62.5 million from DEFRA and £10.9 million from the Scottish Executive.

The Scottish Executive will still be paying the amount it has promised but DEFRA will not be fulfilling its commitments. In March DEFRA had notified BW that its grant would be cut by 5% (£3.1 million). BW adjusted its budgets accordingly but in August DEFRA announced that BW's funding would be cut by a further 7.5% (£4.5 million) with the possibility of a further 2.5% (£1.5 million) being slashed in November. This lower level of funding is to continue through 2007 and perhaps until 2012.

This is as a result in a financial crisis in DEFRA itself. It has run into severe money problems, with a huge backlog in payments to farmers. The Treasury has refused to bale DEFRA out so they are cutting funding to all of its dependednt organisations, even those, like BW, not connected with farming.

Robin Evans, BW's Chief Executive, has written to all BW employees to inform them of the situation and to encourage them to identify all ways of cutting any expenditure that does not deliver any of BW's three priorities of making the network safe and secure, increasing BW's net income and increasing the number of vistors to the canal network.

One immediate consequence is the reduction of the major works budget by £4 million although this is regarded as "highly undesirable". BW is already in the process of becoming more efficient through moving to smaller offices. Mr Evans is also encouraging the buying of supplies through national contracts and reducing travel and meeting expenses.

Robin Evans and BW Chairman Tony Hales have been having meetings with ministers in attempts to stop these funding cuts, and tryingto persuade them of the need for BW to be properly funded and supported by government in the longer term.

Mr Evans warns that if greater efficiencies are not made, BW will need to look at further cuts in the works programme and at reductions in the payroll budget.