THE NATIONAL SURVEY RESULTS show Canal & River Trust are failing to 'get the basics right' for UK Waterways.
So tell the National Bargee Travellers Association, it adding the following:
Published results
Last week quango Canal & River Trust published the results of their ‘engagement survey of Canal & River Trust waterway users’, carried out between March and April of this year by independent consultants Campbell Tickell.
The results showed that more than 8 in 10 are frustrated with the day-to-day management of CRT waterways in the UK.
Over 60% of respondents were frustrated about maintenance—including of towpaths and banks, management of water supply and a lack of investment in infrastructure—making this the biggest issue raised in the report.
Despite CRT scapegoating the rise in itinerant boat dwellers, only 1 in 20 surveyed saw overcrowding on the waterways as an issue.
9 in 10 did not support legislative change, despite CRT’s recent emphasis on this possibility.
Caused outrage
The survey forms part of CRT’s ongoing ‘Future of Boat Licensing Commission’ which caused outrage earlier this year when it described the itinerant boating community as an ‘operational, financial and reputational challenge’ and lamented how legislation like the Human Rights Act 1998 and Equality Act 2010 were limiting the charity’s ability to take enforcement action against boaters, which includes forcing people into homelessness via eviction proceedings.
The total population of itinerant boaters on the UK’s more than 2,000 miles of navigable canals and rivers numbers only around 7,000. Yet in recent years CRT has targeted this small community with a controversial fee surcharge, a decline in services, punitive enforcement (including of families, pensioners and disabled boaters), and multiple attempts to remove historic mooring spaces altogether.
Questions about the survey data
The leading national organisation of itinerant boat dwellers, the National Bargee Travellers Association, requested the raw data of the survey in a meeting with CRT, but to date has received nothing, shedding doubt on the Commission’s promises of 'clarity' and 'fairness'.
A Freedom of Information Act request has now been lodged.
The survey—which many respondents have reported as being ill-conceived and biased—has nevertheless returned results that will make difficult reading for CRT.
Despite CRT’s continued scapegoating of boaters, the numbers show a convincing rejection of the idea of legislative change that could be used to decimate England's boating community.
More worryingly for CRT, they also indicate a range of stakeholders’ overwhelming level of frustration with its day-to-day management of the waterways, including financial mismanagement, a decline in facilities and anger over the inflating wages of CRT executives.
Rising salaries vs disappearing services
The number of CRT employees paid over £60,000 p.a. doubled between 2013/14 and 2023/24. In the same period, CRT invested in only two drinking water access points nationwide and no new sanitation facilities. And yet in only three years (2020-2023) they permanently shut down 21 waste facilities. It’s small surprise that waterway users across the country are frustrated.
Chair of the National Bargee Travellers Association, Pamela Smith complained:
“Yet again, CRT has attempted to use a deliberately biased survey to manufacture consent amongst the public, just as they did when they introduced the licence surcharge despite the vocal opposition of a majority of boaters and boating organisations.
"This time, however, their strategy has backfired. CRT have asked waterways users what they think the issues with the canals are—filled with leading questions to suggest that it’s itinerant boaters—and the vast majority of people have come back and told ‘you’re the issue, and you should focus on doing your jobs properly’.
"Boaters are the lifeblood of the canals, with itinerant boaters forming a unique and essential part of this country’s waterways system and heritage, keeping the canals functional, safe, welcoming, interesting and full of life and colour. By attacking boaters and neglecting their own work, CRT is doing a disservice to everyone who loves the UK’s canals and rivers. We can only hope that CRT takes this opportunity to actually listen to what waterways users of all kinds want: knuckle down and do the job you were created to do.”