A unified navigation authority has many obvious benefits to boat users – provided that unified legislative controls applied, which they cannot, without an unlikely massive Parliamentary effort to abolish all existing legislation and introduce new.
The factor underlying some people’s concerns, however, has its source in the deep-grained institutional character of the administrations. Each is distinct owing to the varied nature of their responsibilities and priorities, and the traditional type of persons deemed appropriate to the differing tasks. The tussle between the BW/CaRT administration and the EA administration over the proposed take-overs bruited historically, is revelatory of those distinctive character traits and objectives.
The prospect of the likes of Parry and his ilk as inheritors of the BW tradition taking over the administration of EA waters, is a legitimate source of dismay to those familiar with each; and that is leaving out the equally unpalatable prospect of the economic and practical handling of their affairs.
When previous bids were made by a covetous BW to take over EA waters, the government wisely chose to leave the status quo be; the present political climate that bulldozed through the Public Bodies Bill is likely, despite the historical lessons, to abrogate due Parliamentary responsibility even further – which is a prospect rightly appalling many other than boaters.
So far as the “commitment to government grant protection” is concerned, it needs to be remembered that the over-riding objective of Government in pushing through the Transfer, was reduced government support, and that the result was an assurance of but a fraction of what is needed, and of what had been provided previously. The Transfer resulted in drastic cuts in funding in other words; all justified on the basis of Evans & Co’s oleaginous assurances that getting people to volunteer time and money would eventually remove the need for any government support at all – once the system had deteriorated to a sufficiently degraded level.
Thank goodness at least some in government saw enough danger signals to make the potential incorporation of EA waters to CaRT dependant on a proven fiscal track record.