The other important bit of the Budget

[carlt]

Like it or not, roads are an essential part of life. Canals are not, and that will be borne out in the decision making IN MOST LA's[/color]

In your opinion.

 

I don't see how your doom and gloom vision differs from BW's approach now, though.

 

Some canals are well maintained and supported whilst others are already being allowed to deteriorate.

 

Personally, if the canals "deteriorate" back to the condition they were in, when I started boating, I'll be buying another canal boat and getting back on the cut.

[tidal]

I've been watching this debate, and wandering through the *** that is the official version and I am still not sure whether to cheer or cry

 

At the moment I'm somewhere between Carls view and luctors. Funding does worry me as does overall control and direction but I also take Carls point about highways

 

I think we need more detail preferably in plain english not whitehallese ( well I can dream can't I) For now I'm going to sit back, watch and chew my nails

[soldthehouse]

I've been watching this debate, and wandering through the *** that is the official version and I am still not sure whether to cheer or cry

 

At the moment I'm somewhere between Carls view and luctors. Funding does worry me as does overall control and direction but I also take Carls point about highways

 

I think we need more detail preferably in plain english not whitehallese ( well I can dream can't I) For now I'm going to sit back, watch and chew my nails

you may be dissapointed if you are expecting fine print, and something that would make people and systems truly accountable. with such a large concern the target and focus is constantly shifting and as a result policy making will always be made on the hoof.

[starman]

I've been watching this debate, and wandering through the *** that is the official version and I am still not sure whether to cheer or cry

 

At the moment I'm somewhere between Carls view and luctors. Funding does worry me as does overall control and direction but I also take Carls point about highways

 

I think we need more detail preferably in plain english not whitehallese ( well I can dream can't I) For now I'm going to sit back, watch and chew my nails

 

Agreed - we badly need to know where the bulk of the funding is to come from before carrying the debate much further. English Heritage, for example, gets 75 per cent of its funding from central govt. (according to the EH website) while the National Trust is independent of government funding and 'relies on the support of' its members -- but it has 3.4 MILLION of them.

If local authorities are to be a main source of funding then there is no escaping the fact that they all have very different spending levels and priorities.

[Richard Fairhurst]

Local authorities are not going to be the main source of funding AIUI.

 

A lot of the point of moving to the third sector is 'broadening the base' - i.e. not becoming too reliant on one source of funding. If you look at a lot of the third sector organisations quoted in the Compass report and similar, they're pretty expert at getting funding from a multitude of different sources. BW actually doesn't do much of that right now (though they have a smart guy in Watford who is pretty impressive at suckering funds out of Europe!).

[magpie patrick]

Local authorities are not going to be the main source of funding AIUI.

 

A lot of the point of moving to the third sector is 'broadening the base' - i.e. not becoming too reliant on one source of funding. If you look at a lot of the third sector organisations quoted in the Compass report and similar, they're pretty expert at getting funding from a multitude of different sources. BW actually doesn't do much of that right now (though they have a smart guy in Watford who is pretty impressive at suckering funds out of Europe!).

 

If it's the guy I'm thinking of, he shares his name with a mean sax player (deceased)

 

what we need to watch, though, is that this doesn't become a case of BW losing half it's grant and then being told to bid for it from myriad sources

[Richard Fairhurst]

That's the chap!

[Dominic M]

Local authorities are not going to be the main source of funding AIUI.

 

A lot of the point of moving to the third sector is 'broadening the base' - i.e. not becoming too reliant on one source of funding. If you look at a lot of the third sector organisations quoted in the Compass report and similar, they're pretty expert at getting funding from a multitude of different sources. BW actually doesn't do much of that right now (though they have a smart guy in Watford who is pretty impressive at suckering funds out of Europe!).

Suckering funds out of a Europe that is going to be focussed on bailing out PIGS may not be a viable option in the foreseeable future. I note no one has made reference to the EFRA committee report of 2 or so years ago which claimed that where £1 was spent on canal restoration, £6 returned to the local economy.