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Britain’s waterways are about to experience a revolution in the way they are governed and managed.  The imminent move from Public Corporation to Charity will require a transformational change in all aspects of British Waterways’ (BW) organisational culture, mission and vision, finances, management and public engagement if it is to stand a chance of success. [...]

The blog posts linked to below provide tips on how you can respond to Defra’s consultation on the future of British Waterways titled ‘A New Era for the Waterways’. We see this consultation as a unique opportunity to encourage Defra and BW to think about the options available to it in terms of community development [...]

Question 8: Do you agree with the proposed governance model for the new charity? What improvements could be made?   The consultation outlines the government’s intention to ‘best nurture the spirit of cooperation by devolving power, assets, money and knowledge to those best place to find the best solutions to local needs’.  It goes on [...]

Question 23: Are there any other activities of British Waterways that would be best placed in the CIC? Community Interest Companies (CICS) are limited companies, with special additional features, created for the use of people who want to conduct a business or other activity for community benefit, and not purely for private advantage. This is [...]

Question 13: How best can the NWC strike the right balance between local needs and the needs of the waterways network as a whole? Question 14: How could the charity encourage effective working between different communities and partnerships that share the same waterway? The consultation document proposes that Local Partnerships should meet no less than four times [...]

On May 11th Mark Walton and I, co-founders of The Waterways Project, gave evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Waterways.  The group has recently re-convened after a break of some years to scrutinise the planned move of British Waterways into the charitable sector.  Mark and I have been working for the last year [...]