Inland Waterways Advisory Council

[Mick and Maggie]

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman today announced reforms to more than 30 of Defra’s arm’s length bodies, which reforms include abolishing the Inland Waterways Advisory Council (IWAC). IWAC was created in 2007 by the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 as a successor to the Inland Waterways Amenity Advisory Council (which was set up under the Transport Act 1968). IWAC is an independent statutory body advising Government, navigation authorities and other interested persons on matters relevant to Britain's inland waterways including the use and development of the waterways of England, Wales and Scotland.

 

In today’s announcement Mrs Spelman commented: “The effective delivery of public services is essential and I am committed to increasing the transparency and accountability of Defra’s public bodies and to reducing their numbers and costs. Times have changed since many of these bodies were set up and much of what they do is now everyday Government business.” The necessary approvals to carry out the abolition of IWAC will be made via the Public Bodies (Reform) Bill, which is expected sometime during 2011, and it is proposed that thereafter Defra will develop future policy in this area and strengthen relations with stakeholders who have an interest in inland waterways.

 

My humbug counter has gone off the scale!

[Guest]

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman today announced reforms to more than 30 of Defra’s arm’s length bodies, <SNIP>

 

There is a big scale down of what are perceived to be 'quangos' across all aspects of public services including the sector I work in...

[magpie patrick]

“The effective delivery of public services is essential and I am committed to increasing the transparency and accountability of Defra’s public bodies and to reducing their numbers and costs.

 

 

Are you sure we haven't elected New Labour again, the 1997 version? This sort of twaddlish double speak was very much their language

 

I recall them both wanting to speed the planning system up and increase community involvement in it, mutually incompatible goals, this sounds like the same thing, increase transparency and accountability while abolishing the very bodies that deliver it

[Machpoint005]

Same old tories, same old cuts.

[Pluto]

IWAC is/was one of the cheapest of the DEFRA Quangos, costing, so I have been told, less than £200,000 per annum, including staff, rent for office space, and the expenses of those attending meetings. It seems, in government terms, a very small amount compared to many other quangos, especially as it was one of the few ways independent people could comment on what was happening to our waterway system. I suspect there was pressure on DEFRA from some of the waterway authorities whose work has been criticised by IWAC.

[MartinC]

I recall them both wanting to speed the planning system up and increase community involvement in it, mutually incompatible goals, this sounds like the same thing, increase transparency and accountability while abolishing the very bodies that deliver it

 

I am unclear as to how the IWAC's delivered "transparency and accountability". Their meetings appear to have been "closed", did not appear to have any opportunity for public involvement and I cannot find any publication of minutes, outside a limited description in their annual report. To whom were they accountable other than DEFRA?

 

This is a not uncommon problem with a lot of "arms length bodies", who think they are doing a good job but don't realise they need to show much greater and wider public involvement.

[RLWP]

OK, what is/was the IWAC?

 

What is it's purpose?

 

Richard

Edited August 5, 2010 by RLWP

[carlt]

OK, what is/was the IWAC?

 

What is it's purpose?

 

Richard

It was created in 2007 by the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 as a successor to the Inland Waterways Amenity Advisory Council (which was set up under the Transport Act 1968).

 

IWAC is an independent statutory body advising Government, navigation authorities and other interested persons on matters relevant to Britain's inland waterways including the use and development of the waterways of England, Wales and Scotland...

 

...apparently.

[RLWP]

It was created in 2007 by the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 as a successor to the Inland Waterways Amenity Advisory Council (which was set up under the Transport Act 1968).

 

IWAC is an independent statutory body advising Government, navigation authorities and other interested persons on matters relevant to Britain's inland waterways including the use and development of the waterways of England, Wales and Scotland...

 

...apparently.

 

OK, that's the mission statement. What have they done that I would recognise and understand?

 

Richard

[carlt]

OK, that's the mission statement. What have they done that I would recognise and understand?

......well first there's........and then they, um.....and, more importantly........

 

....nope, you've got me there.

[RLWP]

......well first there's........and then they, um.....and, more importantly........

 

....nope, you've got me there.

 

Makes it a bit difficult to get worked up over them being disbanded, doesn't it

 

Richard

[sociable_hermit]

but I understand their business lunches were very good.

[Tim Lewis]

OK, what is/was the IWAC?

 

What is it's purpose?

 

Richard

 

 

http://www.iwac.org.uk/work/

 

Tim

[Mick and Maggie]

OK, what is/was the IWAC? What is it's purpose?

 

Lifted from the IWAC site:

 

IWAC's role is to ensure that the waterways are sustainably developed to meet the needs of all who wish to enjoy them. Once used mainly for freight transport, the waterways are now largely devoted to recreation and amenity use. They are an effective catalyst for the regeneration of local economies acting as a focus to bring economic, social and environmental benefits to cities, towns and rural communities.

 

In England and Wales, IWAC's remit covers all of the inland waterways: canals (including those managed by British Waterways, canal companies, local authorities and smaller independent bodies);

rivers (including those which are the responsibility of the Environment Agency, British Waterways and port authorities); the Norfolk & Suffolk Broads, and the navigable drains of the Fens.

 

In Scotland, IWAC's remit covers the inland waterways which are owned or managed by, or which receive technical advice or assistance from, British Waterways.

 

IWAC's other statutory functions include provision for it to be consulted on proposed orders:

 

under Schedule 13 to the Transport Act 1968 for changing the status or maintenance obligations of BW waterways; under Schedule 1 to the British Waterways Act 1983 for additions to BW's undertaking; under regulations under the Transport and Works Act 1992 for works on BW waterways; and under Schedule 2 of the British Waterways Act 1995. Responsibility for operating and planning the operation of the inland waterways rests with the relevant navigation authority, within the limits of any policies and approvals set by Government. The largest navigation authorities are British Waterways, the Environment Agency and the Broads Authority.

 

Council Members are appointed with backgrounds in areas relevant to IWAC's work such as angling, boating and boating issues, commerce/business, countryside, ecology, heritage, leisure and tourism, leisure for the disabled, and planning and regeneration but are expected to contribute to Council matters in the round, to bring fresh ideas to discussions and to think strategically and practically. Particularly valuable is the ability to relate personal experience gained elsewhere to waterway issues.

 

IWAC future work programme. Research into the benefits of the inland waterways (in partnership with Defra) Reports on: effective waterways partnerships; volunteering and inland waterways - how to attract, integrate and retain volunteers; making more use of waterway paths and their surrounding corridors; the funding of inland waterways in England & Wales; Monitoring of: inland waterway legacy from the London Olympics site.

 

I can't find any reference other that "boating and boating issues" to the need to consult with the majority of inland waterway users - That being us!

 

 

Mick

[Richard Fairhurst]

it is proposed that thereafter Defra will develop future policy in this area and strengthen relations with stakeholders who have an interest in inland waterways.

I'd suggest people take a look at the ever-readable Roger Ford in Modern Railways magazine for some fairly scathing reports on exactly how well this has worked on the railways, where the Department for Transport took policy development back from the Strategic Rail Authority.

 

 

(Mind you, the SRA was often known simply as the R, "because it doesn't have any strategy and it doesn't have any authority")

[RLWP]

OK, that's the mission statement. What have they done that I would recognise and understand?

 

Richard

 

 

Lifted from the IWAC site:

 

IWAC's role is to ensure.....

 

<snip>

 

.....of: inland waterway legacy from the London Olympics site.

 

I can't find any reference other that "boating and boating issues" to the need to consult with the majority of inland waterway users - That being us!

 

 

Mick

I commend you on finding that for me, and I have found that the question that it answers is really not a very good one. So, I've moved onto this one:

 

 

OK, that's the mission statement. What have they done that I would recognise and understand?

 

Richard

 

Any ideas for that one?

 

Richard

Edited August 5, 2010 by RLWP

[magpie patrick]

Assuming their role is the same as their predecessor, they generally draft things like "waterways for Tomorrow" and other guidance, they also have had a habit of looking outside BW's silo, with things like their "restoration priorities" reports which identify which schemes are in a position to spend money.

 

The trouble is if the do anything useful either BW or the Waterways Trust plagiarise it and pass it off as their own (nothing new there then...)

[Pluto]

Assuming their role is the same as their predecessor, they generally draft things like "waterways for Tomorrow" and other guidance, they also have had a habit of looking outside BW's silo, with things like their "restoration priorities" reports which identify which schemes are in a position to spend money.

 

The trouble is if the do anything useful either BW or the Waterways Trust plagiarise it and pass it off as their own (nothing new there then...)

Recently they have also looked at how waterways are funded elsewhere in the world, and also at community involvement and benefit. Apart from a very small staff, they are all volunteers, usually in senior roles elsewhere, or with direct links with waterway users. As volunteers, they don't have much time for communicating widely, but as a group of individuals they do have contacts with many types of waterway users. To me it seemed just the sort of group which will be created to control or advise a waterways body in the third sector. Bit short sighted to disband it then, as it gives out the message that volunteering for senior advisory roles is not valued by government departments.

[Mick and Maggie]

The all new Con-a-Lib government is out to save money.

 

So, British Waterways will eventually at some point end up in the third sector. No one has any idea what the funding arrangements will be, other than it will be a figure lower then the one in place at the moment. I can see some limited savings will be made - but I suspect that as a whole the canal and river network will suffer even more from a greater lack of effective maintainance.

 

The IWAC now goes the way of a few other quango, down the elsan. If we had a voice with IWAC it was always a pretty quiet one, so I guess they will not be missed by the boating fraternity. So some more limited savings are made for the government. What will be the legacy of the IWAC to carry forward?

 

So just where is the boaters representative voice, if we ever had one, going to come from?

 

Idea's anyone?

[Josher]

Will anyone miss it?

 

From the Defra web site 22 August 2011:

 

"A consultation on the proposal to abolish the Inland Waterways Advisory Council (IWAC) has been launched today by Defra Here. The Government announced the intention to abolish IWAC in July last year as part of the Arms Length Bodies Review.

 

IWAC was set up in 2007 by the Natural Environment and Rural Communities (NERC) Act 2006 to advise Government, navigation authorities and other interested persons about the use and development of inland waterways. However, as the Government has announced plans to move management of inland waterways from British Waterways and the Environment Agency to a new charity in April 2012, there will no longer be need for an organisation to provide advice for policy development, allowing savings of around £200,000 per year.

 

Although the Government’s preferred option is to abolish IWAC, Ministers wish to consider respondents’ views before reaching a final decision. The consultation is seeking comments from anyone with a potential interest in our waterways: members of the public, waterway authorities, non-governmental organisations, local authorities and communities and user groups".

[haggis]

Link to the consulation papers should anyone be interested

 

http://www.defra.gov.uk/consult/2011/08/22/waterways-advisory/

 

Haggis

[sueb]

Yes

Sue