Waterways funding continues to be a major concern. The Inland Waterways Association is alarmed at the depth of the cut in grant-in-aid for British Waterways for next financial year (2010/11). It is being reduced from this year’s available grant of £57.448m to just £47.848m, representing a reduction of over 16.7%.

We are concerned that the Environment Agency will receive similar treatment

IWA believes that the threat of underinvestment in the waterways must be addressed by all stakeholders in the waterways – now!

Unless we stand up to this we can expect more of the same.

We must all defend our waterways system. Today we are asking you to support our Save Our System 2010 (SOS 2010) campaign.

We need to know how these cuts are affecting the system and do something about it before it is too late.

The aim of SOS 2010 is to encourage all local waterways stakeholders - societies, trusts, boat hire companies, businesses, local community groups - to collaborate locally and to pursue local action, such as towpath events and communication with the local media, publicising the effect of the cuts on the quality of local waterways.

We are calling upon all stakeholders to work together and in partnership with local navigation authority managers to identify issues of poor maintenance and slipping standards, especially those issues affecting safety.

The collection of evidence about problems caused by underfunding locally will allow us to build the national picture so that no-one can deny the effect of these cuts and so that the underfunding can be reversed.

Please join our campaign today.

Our waterways need your support - NOW