British Waterways Press Update
24 October 2008
The latest round up of stories for the waterways press.
Waterways Press Update - October 2008
CONTENTS
1. British Waterways Annual Meeting
2. Licence evasion crackdown
3. Waterway Standards Advisory Panel
4. Government response to Efra inquiry
1. British Waterways Annual Meeting
The 2008 British Waterways Annual Meeting was held on 8 October in Birmingham and offered a number of points of discussion about the management and financing of the waterways. Attended by many waterway interest groups, charities and waterway related businesses, Tony Hales, BW chairman, opened the meeting and introduced a video message from the new waterways minister, Huw Irranca-Davies.
In the context of British Waterway’s (BW) strategic plan and vision, Robin Evans, BW chief executive, presented some of the waterway achievements and activities from the past 12 months. He also gave fuller explanation for some of the ‘live’ issues, including around BW’s decision, as part of its Customer Services Standards, to standardise the installation of lock bollards.
The morning session preceded a debate about future strategy for waterways: Waterways for the 21st Century. Chaired by Tony Hales, the panelists were: John Edmonds, chair of IWAC; Rt. Hon John Gummer MP; Richard Fairhurst, editor of Waterways World; and Carole Souter, chief executive of the Heritage Lottery Fund.
In the context of limited financial waterway resources, the panellists presented their thoughts on future strategy before the debate was opened up with a number of questions taken from the floor. The session included discussion on BW’s funding gap, engaging volunteers and extending the appeal of the waterways beyond traditional canal enthusiasts to embrace the support of wider society for which well maintained canals and rivers deliver so many benefits. The debate also considered the need for comprehensive evidence that showcases the value of the waterways, including their roles in areas such as community regeneration and the fight against climate change.
Downloadable audio files together with written transcripts of the morning presentations and afternoon debate are available on the BW website: www.britishwaterways.co.uk/listening-to-you/meetings/annual-meeting.
2. Licence evasion crackdown
An online boat checker has been added to the British Waterways website which allows those who have seen a potentially unlicensed boat to check its index number against BW’s database of licensed craft. The website will then allow the person to report their sighting to BW’s enforcement teams for them to follow up and assign a priority for action.
Denise Yelland, BW’s enforcement manager, comments: “Traditionally, many people have been writing or telephoning BW with reports of potentially unlicensed boats – reports which need individually investigating and responding to. The online checker will therefore save quite a bit of BW staff time allowing our enforcement teams to prioritise those that are actually unlicensed.
“Ad hoc reporting by those cruising the network will supplement our automated systems and the efforts of our enforcement teams. During one month this summer, these resulted in a record recovery of almost £290k of backdated and overdue licence fee income.
“Of the first couple of dozen reports submitted via the boat checker, one revealed the current location of a boat which we had lost sight of after serving a Section 8 notice on it – so a particularly useful piece of information.”
And further licence enforcement actions are set to follow. A date has been set for the introduction of the Late Payment Charge which was announced earlier in 2008. People whose boat licence is more than one month out of date on 1st April 2009 will have to pay an extra £150 for their renewal.
‘License it or Lose it’ can be found at www.britishwaterways.co.uk/license-it.
3. Waterway Standards Advisory Panel
Following the introduction of a measurable set of customer service and safety standards at the start of April, British Waterways (BW) drew up proposals for a panel of trade, consumer and BW representatives to help monitor and further develop BW’s standards into the future. The first meeting of the resultant Waterway Standards Advisory Panel took place at the start of October.
The current panel, chaired by Simon Salem, BW’s marketing and customer service director, includes experienced members of the boating trade, boating community and other waterway leisure users as well a lock keeper, length inspection supervisor and customer operations manager from BW.
Simon comments: “Our Customer Services Standards clearly define what can be expected from BW and our waterways. The Advisory Panel is currently reviewing the standards against what’s happening on the cut and to see, as far as is possible, if they reflect the wide ranging needs and views of those using the waterways.
“The first meeting showed the value of having input from both within and outside of BW and the intention is for the Panel to formulate recommendations about any additional standards that should be introduced or modifications that should be made to the existing set. Their expertise will carry serious weight when it comes to BW’s annual business planning and scheduling of maintenance works.”
All of BW’s 81 current customer services standards are published on BW’s website and are available from its customer services team.
4. Government response to Efra inquiry
Defra has published a joint response on behalf of both the Government and British Waterways in response to the Efra Select Committee report on BW. The full response is available at:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmenvfru/1081/1081.pdf.