Waterways in Crisis? Canals may close due to DEFRA 'mistakes'.

Boaters are organising protest events, see www.savethewaterways.org.uk. Report on BW AGM.

British Waterways Announces Plans For Job Losses - 9 October 2006 - British Waterways News Release
'Restructure focuses on improving front line delivery of customer services while reducing costs'

British Waterways has begun consultation with trades unions on its plans to shed 180 jobs by April 2007 in response to its need to become even more efficient in its management of the country's 2,200-mile waterway network. The redundancies, announced today, are part of restructuring plans designed to bring a greater focus to customer service delivery on the bankside. The announcement comes at a time when the Government has announced reductions in funding to British Waterways.

A key part of the plan involves the merging of two existing business units - Central Shires and West Midlands - into a single unit committed to delivering services and facilities across the heart of the country's canal network. The new unit will be headed up by Tony Harvey , the existing Central Shires general manager, and will be based in BW's offices at Fazeley, near Tamworth .

In making this announcement BW's directors have also taken the opportunity to assess the effectiveness of current waterway unit structures and have made a number of changes to deliver improvements in customer service and business efficiency. Each unit will have three senior managers focusing on delivering:
• activities with customers, such as waterside business development;
• activities on behalf of customers, such as a rapid response team to fix reported problems quickly; and,
• activities that contribute to the maintenance of the waterways' infrastructure, such as managing major works programmes.

Job losses will be concentrated amongst office-based staff where it is believed the greatest levels of efficiency can be achieved whilst maintaining and improving on-the-ground service delivery to the millions of people who enjoy the canal network every year. The restructure is expected to provide savings of £5m per annum, helping BW to meet the financial pressures it is currently facing with a reduction in Government grant.

Robin Evans, British Waterways Chief Executive, says: "We remain committed to achieving our Vision and in doing so we have to make difficult decisions along the way. I am announcing these decisions today because they are essential if we are to maintain our rate of progress.

"I accept that this is difficult news but we cannot be complacent in our management of the waterways network. We must constantly adapt and change to the circumstances around us, remaining committed to our Vision of an expanded, vibrant, largely self-sufficient network enjoyed by an ever increasing numbers of visitors".

UNISON Pledges to Fight Waterways Job Cuts

UNISON News Release 09/10/2006

BW today (Monday 9 October) announced the job cuts, blaming a 12.5% cut in funding from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), without having discussed alternative options with the unions. The announcement flies in the face of a commitment given in July 2006 by BW Chief Executive Robin Evans, that there would be no knee jerk reaction to the funding cuts this year.

BW is the second largest owner of listed buildings* and scheduled ancient monuments after the Church of England. Its ecologists assess the environmental impact of waterside development. It is heavily involved in major restoration and regeneration projects across the UK, as deliverer and catalyst for £6 billion of regeneration work.

DEFRA has said that the reduced grant may remain at this lower level until 2011/12. It cites the fines imposed on it by Europe, for not making payments to farmers fast enough, as a key cause of its current financial difficulties.

UNISON National Officer, Chris Fabby, said:
“We will fight these job cuts with every means at our disposal and we have arranged an emergency meeting of stewards to draw up plans to do that.
“It's disgraceful that someone up the line, in DEFRA, makes a huge mistake and, as usual, it's the workers down the line who have to pay the price. BW should sit down with us to work through alternative options before making a rushed decision to make workers redundant.
“Across the board cuts will penalise British Waterways, an organisation widely acknowledged as being efficient and successful. We are also concerned that the job cuts will impact on future regeneration projects. Hundreds of miles of canals could face closure and plans to re-open 60 miles of previously closed waterways in the North-West of England, could be shelved.”

BW receives grants from both DEFRA and the Scottish Executive, amounts agreed for this year were £62.5m and £10.9m respectively. In March however, DEFRA cut that grant by 5% (£3.1m) and in July by a further 7.5% (£4.5m).

DEFRA has to pay a large fine to Europe for not making payments to farmers fast enough and is incurring substantial extra costs in dealing with the backlog of payments to farmers.