The road to 2020 vision on the canals

British Waterways has taken us me quite by surprise.  Firstly it's issued a 'road map' of where it wants to steer the waterways in the next decade, a fourteen-page brochure called:

   2020 – A Vision For The Future Of Our Canals And Rivers 

(There's a companion YouTube video, although that is a bit corporate and watercolourish and won't tell you too much.  Looks and sounds good, though)  

Next, as a flying start to the new initiative, it's announced a big restructuring and 'slimming down' of management, with about 100 job losses.  A good day to bury bad news.

They call it the 'Third Sector', this approach.  As far as I can tell, it's about moving BW into a sort of public trust, perhaps a bit like the National Trust.  And just as the NT is supported by endowments, so BW would be aided by its own property portfolio, the canalside land it has developed over the last decade.

But the waterways can't be supported entirely by the property; BW will still need support from the central government, albeit in straitened circumstances.  The government doesn't have the money now, even if the general public is using the canals as much as (or more than) we boaters. 

So BW will need wider public support.  Perhaps, like the National Trust, there'll be an element of 'joining', although what they could join and how people would contribute I confess I've little idea.   Except, as I've said before, the voluntary work could be the key.

Waterways World has summed it up well here, and appears enthusiastic.

The Inland Waterways Association is more sceptical; its press release gives 'a cautious welcome' but IWA Chairman Clive Henderson says 'we should not take risks with the waterway network'. 

I think that's wrong.  I think that, oh yes, we should take risks.  Without risks, the IWA would never have got started at all.  Without risks, the waterways will sink again into what Tom Rolt memorably called 'a reedy stagnant ditch'.  Without risks, nothing worthwhile can emerge.  Risks were what Robert Aickman took, especially in the early days when he was warned he risked antagonising people by his campaigning.  Who are Aickman's heirs now? 

I wonder if '2020' was the document the BW PR dept had in mind when a couple of weeks ago they asked if they could use one of my photos in a 'forthcoming document'.  (I said of course, naturally, feel free.  I was flattered to be asked.) 

In the event it wasn't used, so I've added it to this blog post instead.  It does rather sum up the 'old boats and new buildings' idea of the waterways of 2020. 

Hopefully by 2020 I'll have some interesting new sights to photograph.

But all this is a bit deja vu.  BW have regularly produced worthy dreams of the future.  Five years ago they brought out something with even greater vision: Waterways 2025.  That was more about canal restoration, envisioning the new and revived canals, such as the Lichfield, the Wilts & Berks, and the (now realised) Liverpool Link.  It was an inspiring dream.  

2020 is more of a wake-up call.  It's about the humdrum stuff - what's necessary, rather than what's possible.

By the way, I notice that 2020 says nothing about the Environmental Agency waterways, principally the Thames and the Anglian waterways.  Does that mean that Robin and his Merry Men have given up on ever extending their remit?

Comments

[Bruce Napier]

I'll repeat here what I've just said on Martin Clark's blog:

I wish I could make up my mind about this one! On the face of it, it's the right way to go for all sorts of reasons, but...

1) The "new" units are more or less the ones we had just a couple of years ago, so why not acknowledge that?

2) Why does the strategy document have to be a trendy bit of arty design? It must have cost a packet in itself.

3) The actual message is "We're going to sack 100 people, then think about how to get round to using volunteers over the next 10 years".

If I trusted Robin and his crew more, I might be more excited. Must be becoming a Grumpy Old Boater, I guess.

Cheers

Bruce

[Nick Corble]

Waterways for Tomorrow (2000) - yet another one although perhaps, judging by its title, less ambitious.