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Publication Date: 04 August 2006
The Inland Waterways Association (IWA) has strongly criticised proposed government cuts to Grant-in-Aid to waterways and countryside bodies for which it is responsible, including British Waterways (BW) and the Environment Agency, which could lead to deterioration in waterway maintenance standards, and risk increasing the maintenance backlog. The Association’s comment is in response to reports in the press this week.
A report in The Guardian on 3rd August, from information leaked from the Environment Agency, explains that the latest proposed cut to BW’s budget has been caused by increased levels of payments to farmers and additional civil servants to deal with the agricultural payments. Media reports also state that a European fine is to be applied to the British Government for failing to make a sufficient proportion of its agricultural subsidy payments to UK farmers on time under a new system introduced this year. The fine, as well as the increased costs of the new system, is to be met from the Department for the Environment Food & Rural Affairs, and it seems the only way it can do this is to cut the budgets of everything other than those for agricultural subsidy payments, which are protected by European agreements.
The Environment Agency is also set to set to suffer a £25 million cut to its budget and BW may have to accept a reduction in its grant of about 7.5% (£4.5 million) in this financial year, which would put at risk BW’s planned winter maintenance programme. BW has already agreed a cut to its grant of 5% (about £3 million) for 2006/07 shortly before the beginning of the financial year, so this further cut would mean an overall loss of 12.5% of BW’s government funding before taking into account erosion by inflation. The Environment Agency says it plans to increase licence fees to boaters by nearly 50% over the next three years, and has been forced to do so by the Department.
Neil Edwards, IWA chief executive, said today:
“The government’s plan to cut budgets for BW, the Environment Agency and other bodies such as Natural England, simply to pay for mismanagement of agricultural subsidy payments, is unreasonable and evidence of yet further planned mismanagement. BW, for example, has a clear ten-year strategy and a detailed three-year business plan, with expenditure plans for this year’s winter maintenance already agreed in detail for waterway user groups. No organisation can be expected to plan to get value for money when short notice and arbitrary cuts of this type are being made.”
Neil Edwards added
“The Inland Waterways Association is equally concerned that these cuts would be unlikely to be reinstated in the following year’s budget, and could lead to long-term decline in waterway maintenance work and impairment to the ability of navigation authorities to invest in waterway restoration projects, as well as pressure for commercial developments that concentrate more or revenue generation at the expense of safeguarding the special historic and important wildlife environment.”
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For further information please contact:
Vicky Clark or Jessica Letters, IWA Head Office Tel: 01923 711114
Roger Squires, IWA Navigation Committee chairman Tel: 020 7232 0987
Notes for Editors:
For sixty years, The Inland Waterways Association and its thousands of members have campaigned for the conservation, use, maintenance, restoration and sensitive development of Britain's canals and river navigations.
IWA works closely with navigation authorities, other waterway bodies, a wide range of national and local authorities, voluntary, private and public sector organisations to raise funds, lobby for support and encourage public participation. The Association also supplies voluntary labour through its subsidiary Waterway Recovery Group. More than 500 miles of canals and river navigations have been re-opened to public use since the Association was founded in 1946. More than 500 miles of further derelict inland waterways are currently the subject of restoration plans. The Association organises several national events each year to promote the waterways, draw attention to areas of concern and raise funds to support the Association’s activities.
Certainty of funding by means of a long term contract between BW and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was a substantial point of the last major government review of BW, which was carried out in 2004.
