Protesters to block GU link

[ditchcrawler]

I'm really sorry but I don't, there were lots and lots of people from all sorts of backgrounds involved in the Save Our Waterways protest movement of 2006/07 across the whole country. I don't know if the original SOW website is still somewhere on the web as all the events were on there, often with pictures. The late and much missed Mike Steven's also had lots of reports on his website along with pictures if anyone has a lnk to that. I thought his website had been preserved somewhere but I'm not sure if it's the whole site which was very extensive, informative and great reading.

 

Debbi

Wasn't Will Chapman heavily into it at one time.

[NigelMoore]

I don't see the conversion of the BW quango into the CRT charity as the government absolving themselves of responsibility for the canals . . .

 

It is a fact that if you wrote a report on the situation with the waterways and sent it to the Prime Minister, he would forward that to DEFRA as the relevant government department. DEFRA would then claim that it is not for DEFRA ministers to get involved, as CaRT is an independent charity, and they would simply suggest that concerns are raised with the CaRT team and Trustees!

 

In operational terms, in other words, government has most decidedly and consciously distanced themselves absolutely, confining their involvement to the strictly limited annual grants - that statute provides can be downgraded [if certain targets are not met], but not uplifted.

 

As I have posted previously, government and BW’s leadership recognised and accepted the inevitability of a decline for years, following the transition – and that was factoring in the most blindly optimistic projections from Evans & co. that have thus far been revealed for wistful nonsense.

 

Yes, a future government very probably will have to step in, but that will only happen [sans new legislation] in the event of CaRT’s total financial collapse – upon which CaRT will automatically cease to be trustee of the waterways, and EFRA will be then obliged [under the terms of the Waterways Infrastructure Trust Settlement] to appoint a replacement.

 

The alternative would necessitate huge numbers becoming collectively embued with the enthusiasm such as marked the IWA of early days, wherein teams of volunteers turned out to physically plan and carry out restoration and maintenance works themselves, regardless and independent of the authority’s finances and programs.