
Great news! A funding deal has been agreed between the Government and the Trustees of the Canal & River Trust – at last and not a moment too soon.
Richard Benyon, Waterways MInister, announced to the House today a long term funding deal worth more than £1billion over the next 15 years…..
Looks like the handover to the Canal and Rivers Trust may not happen as planned in April 2012. It appears that our government is being very slow again in pushing things through. The government funding on handover has still not been agreed and things can’t happen until it is. BW proposed such a National Trust [...]

Suggestions that the new Canal and River Trust needed to be accountable through a public body will not be required in the near future. The Government says the Freedom of Information Act will still apply to the new charity, except for fundraising functions. The FoIA will also be extended to other navigation authorities.

It has been suggested that there should be a Charities Ombudsman for all charities including the new Canal & River Trust. This hopefully would ensure that the new trust can be held more accountable for its actions and provide a complaints procedure when the public believes that the already inadequate income is not being spent [...]

So, the dice have been tossed, the votes counted, and the influences in high places exerted. The new name for the new trust is Canal & River Trust. The Welsh name for the new charity is Glandwr Cymru meaning Waterside Wales. I can see that the names are fitting and representative, if not inspired. But, frankly, the [...]

BW has published a list of 8 people appointed to advise on the setting up of the new charity for the transition period to April 2012. After this they will take charge from the current BW Board…..

This article is the second part of a series and is on the governance structure of the new charity. It is my précis of the information given in the DEFRA waterways consultation document: A New Era for the Waterways A consultation on the Government’s proposals for moving inland waterways into a new charity in England and [...]

The consultation document on moving the inland waterways of England and Wales into management by a Civil Society Charity replacing British Waterways Corporation is a daunting 84 pages in length and contains 29 questions for you to consider and reply to if you are a concientious citizen (my phrase). To make this easier to take [...]

The consultation by DEFRA on moving inland waterways into the third sector, ie a new charity, in England and Wales started today 30 March and ends on 30 June 2011. To take part in this ….

The image on the left combines all the words in the suggestions for renaming BW put forward by BW for people to vote on through the waterscape.com website. To find out more about this renaming visit Waterscape News.