Why a campaign Cruise? First thing to point out that the majority of English waterways are managed and financed by either the Environment Agency or British Waterways. The Environment Agency is responsible for a lot of other things like flood control and receives its grant in total from the government. British Waterways (BW) also receives a grant from the government but is allowed to generate income, mostly from property and other commercial activities relating to its infrastructure, eg water management, and communications - there are miles of cable buried under towpaths. A proportion of funding comes from licences or registrations, but this is not enough to keep the organisations self sustaining. Both rely on government grants, and both receive these grants from DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). DEFRA wants British Waterways to become totally self sustaining, claiming that increased grants in recent years have enabled the backlog of safety related maintenance to be eliminated and so a reduction has been planned and in general accepted. Whether elimination of the grant in Toto is possible or desirable is disputed and can be debated, however, what is now of great concern is that the grant has been further cut in year due to what many consider to be gross mismanagement by DEFRA of its other interests, but particularly farming. This has forced BW to make unplanned cuts resulting in some 160 staff losing their jobs, closure of offices and implying that maintenance will be postponed even to the possibility of some canals being abandoned. Licence holders are being expected to pay substantially more and some see us entering the realm of diminishing returns. Of course the law of unintended consequences also applies when decisions are taken arbitrarily. So one might understand the concern that is is unacceptable, not just for boaters, but the multitudes who also enjoy the waterways such as fishermen, walkers, joggers, cyclists and the property owners who have invested in waterside properties in the expectation that these will remain attractive places to live and do not want to see the waterways degenerate into dirty rubbish filled smelly ditches.
Resistance to these changes is being mounted by the Inland Waterways Association (IWA) among others including a self funded ad-hoc group with the website "Save our Waterways". The Campaign Cruise has been organised by the Inland Waterways Association and Nuggler is part of that.
The Cruise: All the boats taking part assembled in East India Dock ship lock by 9.am. Our departure was delayed by one narrow boat with engine starting problems and also partly by the need to raise the road bridge for mv Reliance, a dutch barge and this cannot be done before 9am apparently (rush hour maybe). Once out on the river, the melee of boats gradually sorted itself out into the planned and detailed staggered formation. Banners were suitably fixed on the out facing sides. A swarm of two or three police boats then set to boarding most of the boats (not ours - we feel unloved) to "have a chat" and fill out paperwork no doubt. Usually, we understand this is for the boarding officer to get out of the cold and have a mug of tea, but we notice that their boats now have enclosed cabins, so maybe the excuse no longer works. Arrival at the Palace of Westminster was timed for 11:10, so periodically the convoy leaders slowed down causing temporary disarray behind. After Waterloo Bridge we were joined by a trip boat hired by IWA and hosting many MPs who support our stance, and the press. We were impressed to see the rear end of Nuggler moving out of shot on the BBC local evening news bulletin. Once the convoy had turned above Lambeth Bridge, the race back to Limehouse began, with the predicable suspects in the lead. Limehouse can only take 3 full length boats at a time, so with 25 or so boats to get in (the most ever on one tide - think of the paperwork!) it was going to take some time. Lady Mehr Noor - a Braidbar boat who moors in Limehouse and knows the local waters was first in, but most of us had to wait outside stemming the tide. It took us about 2 hours wait. Two boats had engine failures waiting and were breasted up and given priority. I guess this is a lesson for us all. It can happen, but why? I for one would love to hear the full story. Pictures on the photo album site.
Back safely in the marina we moored on the opposite wall to the majority, thinking of our expected guests who might not appreciate crawling over three or so boats to get aboard and the fact that we needed to leave early. We met our guests, Rosie and David and had a splendid meal in the Grapes fish restaurant overlooking the river. (See photos )
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