British Waterways and Canal & River Trust
Overview
In April British Waterways is to change to a Charity Organisation to be called Canal & River Trust
Most boaters will know it is happening, a lot of other readers may not, so I will put a few links in here so you can take a look yourselves at the proposals which will be happening in April if it all goes ahead (although recent rumours suggest it may not go ahead until a much later date).
This is probably the best page to look at to explain what it happening. Unfortunately there is a lot of bad feeling and moaning and groaning around the forums and social networks more especially as the new CRT will still have the main top people from British Waterways at the helm.
The Boaters Manifesto states that they should be removed before the CRT takes over. Well that is too big a move in my opinion. All this changeover is going to take time, it won’t happen in a day. I would rather go with the same people at the top to start off with to see how things pan out.
Council Members
There will be 35 new Council Members made up of various groups. 5 of these will be given to ‘private boaters’. 4 we licence holders (one vote per boat) can vote for in February in a single transferable vote Election. (Sarah gets her head round this) The 5th ‘boater’ will be nominated by the British Canoe Union.
5 places on a 35 Council is not enough, in my opinion, as we boaters contribute a tremendous amount of money in our Licence fees.. I could look it up, but it must be a huge proportion of their income.
It is difficult to find out who all these candidates are that we will have to vote for. I do hope Waterscape put up a list. Can you imagine a voting form coming through your door with 1000 names on it? Not an imposibility for sure. I know of 5 or is it 6 or 7?
Boater’s Manifesto
Yesterday (8th January) I joined the Boaters Manifesto Group Facebook Page to find out a bit more and ask questions that I wanted answers on. But since I joined it has been like a school playground with bickering, bullying, insults, threats and even the ‘c’ word from one of the organisers. Not for me and now I have left it (9th January). That is not the way forward. But I did read through quite a lot of relevant stuff and found out a bit more about 5 candidates
Candidates
Two candidates I will not vote for. Nabo’s Stephen Peters (although I am a member of NABO) and RBOA’s Ivor Caplan, (IWA Trustee as well). Nor will I vote for the other three candidates the IWA have put up (how dare they try take the lot!). Private boaters they might be, but I don’t want somebody who could be influenced by their own Committees although they say they won’t, the temptation is there. Another candidate is on that Facebook page who says that he will stand by residential boaters and fight for their rights to live on the side of canals. He is a no, no. There are some other candidates too if you look around.
The person I am looking for is an independent boater who doesn’t come with a list of other Committees that he/she is a member of, is dedicated to making CRT work better that BW has done recently. Somebody who is able to work with fellow Council members. Somebody who is going to listen to boaters’ questions and concerns and action them. And even more importantly, somebody who is going to represent ALL types of boaters not just one particular type.
Andrew Tidy (part one) (part two) fits that bill for me.
Recent News (26th January)
I have seen that Peter Scott of the IWA is also standing as a candidate making the total number of IWA candidates to 5, it’s website has been updated today to that fact. That really is taking the biscuit.
So according to Waterscape there are 33 candidates for the 4 boater’s council representatives. When our ballot forms arrive they will be accompanied with the 150 word manifesto from each so we can choose. Now that is an awful lot of reading to have to do, then there is the research.. ho hum!
More evidence today of maybe a late start for this new Trust when MP Richard Benyon said “There is pressure on launch date of CRT”. He also said that an announcement of the date would be made shortly.
Recent News (31st January)
I have heard there are now 6 candidates from IWA!
Also MP Richard Benyon should be making a statement later today as to the funding for CRT.
Recent News (3rd February)
Well Mr Benyon did make that statement and here it is.. Link That has to be a bit better I suppose, although to me there is not that much difference. I wonder what the £25m is for.. could it be for volunteers to clear up waterways of all types? Maybe it is to help the cost of a reported £10m needed to change all the signage?
So there are 33 candidates for the 4 Boater Council Members. Those are now published along with their manifestos. You can find that list here at this link. I notice that some who are standing have not said that they are part of organisations such as the IWA. I wonder why they have kept that out of their manifestos? They should have been made to include that sort of information so that those that wish to know exactly who the independent boaters are.
The ballot papers should be dropping through our doors from 8th February, and we have until noon on 9th March to make our choices. The result will be known on 12th March. We can either vote on the ballot paper, email or SMS, and details of how to do that will be on the ballot papers, for sure you will need a reference number, so you need to get hold of your mail!
I am still going for Andy Tidy, and will look around to see who else is independent with the right background for the job. I want good representatives who have boaters at heart and not representatives who might be influenced by the Societies they are high up in.
Sue
Updated 23rd January 2012
January 10th, 2012 at 7:39 am
Sue
Thank you for that kind endorsement, its really appreciated. I have been very effective in my career and in all that time I have achieved change by working with people, winning hearts and minds, rather than entering into conflict. Its my way and when you are working towards a long term goal its the only way of achieving results.
January 10th, 2012 at 7:51 am
Great blog Sue – keep this one up if poss.
January 10th, 2012 at 8:42 am
Good post Sue. The fifth, nominated boaters’ place is for the BCU to represent small boat users. I’m with you on backing Andy tidy, though I think there’s a place for the “old lags” like Ivor as well
All the best
Bruce
January 10th, 2012 at 3:15 pm
Sue,
Very interesting, but I am genuinely intrigued that you have thrown your support behind Peter MacDonald.
I don’t know Peter, but as I first saw him declare his intention to stand whilst I was withdrawing myself from the assault on the Boater’s Manifesto Facebook group page, with a firm intention to fully endorse the Boater’s Manifesto, I find your support of him surprising, whatever his boating credentials.
QUOTE “I am giving serious consideration to running for a seat on the CRT Council. My feelings about the future of the CRT and issues facing it are reflected by the Boater’s Manifesto document and if I ran, I would be clear in my support of it.” UNQUOTE
I haven’t studied Peter’s (presumably brand new) web-site in great detail page by page, but could see no immediate statement on there that his candidacy has apparently come from others having been “tried and found wanting” by BM’s supporters. This seems odd, because he is highly active in the BM forum, but hasn’t apparently chosen to highlight that as a major selling point in another place.
As I am finding the actions of those “heading up” Boater’s Manifesto highly divisive at a time when we need just the opposite, I couldn’t possibly cast a vote for anybody who declared total support, (so the NABO man would also fail my tests, on that alone).
Perhaps those declaring for Peter need to get him to make a firm statement on the point, (assuming I haven’t missed it on a quick flick through of his site).
January 10th, 2012 at 6:30 pm
I tried asking Peter Underwood on his Facebook account wall whether he is standing in full support of the Boater’s Manifesto, as he said he would in the BM Facebook Group, as I rechecked all the pages of his new campaign web-site, and (then at least) there was no mention of his endorsement of Boater’s Manifesto anywhere on that site. (His Facebook account being linked to as a “Contact me” route).
My Facebook clearly shows me posting to his “wall”, but for whatever reason my question isn’t there now.
I have therefore asked it again, in the same place.
January 10th, 2012 at 6:54 pm
Five against thirty!!! seems like a stitchup to me.
January 10th, 2012 at 9:27 pm
Bruce,
Thanks for that information I had no idea, and I have no idea what BCU is either.
So I need to do a bit of work, then I will edit this to reflect.
Alan,
I missed Peter MacDonald saying that on the BM Facebook Group page with all the bickering going on around it. You certainly had a very unfair and rough day on Sunday on there.
I have now asked Peter where he stands, and I am fairly satisfied with what he has told me. I can’t quote from our conversation as it was a private PM on Facebook, but he has said that he may post a comment later. Perhaps he might copy and paste some of what he said to me.
I do agree with a lot of what the Boaters Manifesto says as you see in my views above. I do not agree with ousting the top brass of BW before CRT comes into force.
It would be interesting to ask why his support for that is not on his webpages. Maybe he will give a reason at some point.
Are you mixing Peter Underwood with Peter MacDonald on Facebook by the way?
January 10th, 2012 at 11:19 pm
Sue, absolutely correct – all above reference shold be to MacDonald, and my use of Underwood was a mistake. (He must haver got to me after all!…)
Also, to avoid another possible misunderstanding, when I said above that my question to MacDonald appeared to have gone missing that was incorrect. The way his web page links to his Facebook page, (for me at least) doesn’t show it, but a bit of clicking within Facebook will find it, (I asked the same question 3 times before I found this out, unfortunately
).
He hasn’t answered it yet, (any of them), but I do think the position would be clearer if someone who wasn’t another candidate would push him to get his clear position in the public domain. I feel me doing it looks like I’m trying to scupper other candidates, and I probably should have left it to someone else.
You do have to dig quite hard to find some answers, but this slightly obsbure FAQ document
http://www.waterscape.com/media/documents/24729.pdf
(which I think was not initially there?), does help on some points, including what BCU means
QUOTE: The Private Boaters constituency includes one nominated member as representative of boaters without individual licences and the British Canoe Union will be invited to nominate such member.
The BCU I’m told is affiliated to IWA, so they do get some representation in a way there, plus through the place for Waterways Recovery Group (WRG), which is a sub-group of the IWA these days. (Clearly those are not normal “boater” places though)
That FAQ doc does show other organisations, such as the ramblers association, who get to nominate one non elected member of the 35 member council.
Meanwhile the CaRT candidates help-line number just routes you to a generic BW call centre – if you can get through – so trying to get answers to things not in any document is nigh impossible. Sally Ash, BW Head of Boating, was supposed to going to ring me today – she didn’t, of course.
January 10th, 2012 at 11:31 pm
Alan,
Thankyou for that info, I will change the page now I know what BCU means. I now Peter MacDonald was out this evening so maybe that is why he has not responded to you yet.
Thank you too for the added information in your comment, there sure is plenty to read about!
BW don’t do a good job of getting back to anybody. I had a reason to phone them in September, and was told someone would get back to me. In fact I phoned three times and was told the same, but that person never did phone.
I also have three outstanding emails unanswered since November!
January 10th, 2012 at 11:53 pm
Rod,
You are right, five is not enough considering the amount of money we pay.
January 10th, 2012 at 11:54 pm
Sorry to clog up your blog, Sue – but just to reply to Allan -I didn’t see your posts – for which I apologise. I hope I’ve answered your question in my response to Sue.
January 11th, 2012 at 3:45 am
I too looked at the Boaters Manifesto Group Facebook Page,didn’t like the bun fight on there. I find all the candidates seem to be saying the same blurb,its not helping!!
Paddy
January 11th, 2012 at 7:15 pm
Sooooo if we are the bigest contributors “after the government” to the new charity CART why do we have such a small say in what is done with our money? We buy licences and pay tax! Time for a revolt I think…………….. Sign up here if you would like to be revolting.
January 12th, 2012 at 10:00 pm
Hi Sue (and Allan – and others!)
Before I begin, I would like to say that I think there has been some misinformation about the Boater’s Manifesto document floating around cyberspace, and so I wanted to make clear how I became involved.
On Twitter, a number of boaters that I follow had started a conversation about “If there was such a thing, what would a “Boater’s Manifesto” look like. I followed the conversation, raised points that I thought were important, and followed the progress of it. When the final document was produced, Peter Underwood managed to secure a meeting with British Waterways for us to speak to some Trustees. He asked, via Facebook if I recall, for volunteers to help present the document. I looked at the document and felt I would be happy to be part of a group to present it.
Of the group that agreed to present it, some of us had particular points in the document that we felt very strongly about. For me, it was the question at the time about whether the new charity should be subject to the Freedom of Information Act, though I felt strongly about other points as well.
Do I support the document? Yes. However, I am not running in the election simply to advance the Boater’s Manifesto.
On the point of making Senior Management redundant, I accept that this won’t happen before the Canal and River Trust takes over from British Waterways -if for no other reason that vesting day is only a few months away, and a proper handover between new Senior Managers and old ones could not take place in such a short time. Ideally, what I would have liked to have seen was a longer “transition” period for the Charity. The longest serving new Trustees were only appointed in late May, the legislation to create the Canal and River Trust passed only in late December -and we still don’t know how much the funding settlement is going to be despite vesting day being a few short months away! A longer transition period would have allowed time to, among other things, clear up the funding issue – but also to properly plan all aspects of the new Charity – including this election – which, as “one boat one vote” disenfranchises many voters – and indeed many candidates!
On my webpage about why I’m standing, I try to say that I think it is vital that the new Canal and River Trust is not just British Waterways but with a new logo. It must, in its functions, the way it engages people, and in its management culture, reflect the fact that it is a charity, not a quango. It must also actively seek to build goodwill and trust among the boating community.
As I said in my message to Sue, if I had had my choice, what would have happened as regards both Tony Hales and some of the Senior Management was that they at least stepped aside and asked to be re-nominated in their roles by the Trustees. My vocational experience is rooted in the charitable sector, and I know that running a charity is not the same as running a quango. If the changes being proposed are to be REAL changes and the Canal and River Trust is to be a managed as a charity, and not a quango, then management roles will have some different responsibilities. When speaking to a friend of mine about this recently his response was “Of course! Imagine it the other way round – if a charity were to become a quango or corporation, the CEO would need to use some very different skills”.
It’s not all “doom and gloom” though – British Waterways has done some things right! However, the strength of feeling I detect about the Senior Management suggests that they have not managed to communicate this well – indeed, Jane Cotton spoke of her surprise at the strength of negative feeling towards Senior management when she spoke to some people. This worries me as I think the Senior Management of the new charity MUST articulate a clear vision – and one that boaters can get behind. This can’t just be done on Waterscape – they need to get out and talk to the people that use the network!
When I initially published my website (which was two days ago – yes, it is new!) I did have on it that I supported the Boater’s Manifesto. However, in watching the development of the group, I see that there is now discussion about trying to create policy around some of the specific points. Until the policy is produced, I don’t want to say I support it – I can’t support something I haven’t read yet!
Thank you, Sue, for contacting me and inviting me to post here. I appreciate it.
If you, Allan, or anyone else reading this wants to get in touch you can do so by emailing me on macdonaldpj@googlemail.com – my contact details are also on my website http://www.peterforcrt.weebly.com.
Peter
January 12th, 2012 at 10:08 pm
Peter,
I am sorry you comment was stuck in my pending folder and I have only just noticed it. You posted on 10th January, but I have changed the date to today. I think it got held up because of the email address in the comment itself.
January 12th, 2012 at 11:25 pm
Paddy,
Well if you look carefully you will see that some candidates come from organisations such as NABO, some come from boating groups such as The London Boaters and some are totally independent. For me it is an independent boater that I would like to see. It is going to be very difficult to get those on the Council when they have to fight off the organisations.
I just hope that people will not just say, oh well I don’t know, I am a member of IWA so I will just vote for them! Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.
Rod,
Yes quite correct, but at least there are 4 boaters going in there. Maybe later there might be an opportunity to have more, but it is a start. Errr where do we sign!
January 13th, 2012 at 6:14 pm
Hi
I was only half joking when I said that we should be revolting, Ok I know we
don’t posses the detailed knowledge required to run the rivers and
waterways, but five seats out of thirty five on this new committee is
tokenism and is there to allow the same old crew to continue with their
policy of managed decline.
We should be demanding a bigger say rather than accept the crumbs that fall
from the rich mans table. Now is the time to say we don’t want just to hand
over an ever increasing sum for our licences we want a say in how the money
is spent. If we are seen to settle for the crumbs then that is all we will
get.
Regards
Rod
January 13th, 2012 at 11:55 pm
Rod,
Looks like the rich mans table will continue for quite some time. Bet they are celebrating the fact that this now won’t go ahead for quite a while. Rumours are flying about at the moment, and until we get some official comment we don’t know when it is going to happen. Maybe the Government will even change it’s mind.
I really don’t know what we can do about it. A revolt would be great, but it aint gonna happen!
We can block the waterways like we did for Save Our Waterways, but that didn’t come to much in the end. Not paying our licence fees won’t work, because there are so many boaters who use their boats for only a few weeks a year, and for most I guess all this is just ‘one of those things. But to us who have made the waterways our home it is more than that, but anything we do would be to the annoyance of those weekend boaters! That would not make us very popular!
January 26th, 2012 at 1:10 pm
Sue,
Not sure if you have yet caught up with the fact that a 5th IWA candidate, Peter Scott, has now declared himself.
So there are now at least 5 IWA candidates, (and Peter says we can’t rule out there being more!), for the 4 boater places. All are IWA trustees, as well as having senior roles in the IWA. Clarification is being sought as to whether the IWA line will now change to “we are officially supporting 5 – take your choice!”
Also, peter MacDonald’s pages (as linked to above), have been taken down I think. (Peter confirms he did not put his papers in,in the end).
Have you caught up with the fact that BW have now announced there are 33 boater candidates in total, (still subject to passing all the sponsorship checks, though, apparently). I think I know probably 14 of the 33, so the challenge is 19 still to name!……
Best wishes,
Alan
January 26th, 2012 at 11:20 pm
Alan,
Yes, I had caught up with everything, in fact I tweeted about Peter Scott earlier yesterday. I have been doing and helping boaters with website stuff the last couple of days and not got to updating this page! So much to do while I am static! I have updated now as you can see.
I guess the list of candidates will be published tomorrow or Monday. But how much money is going to be spent on paper and postage to get all the information to us voters!?