Appendix 1
Inland Waterways Amenity Advisory Council Report Britain's Inland Waterways: An Undervalued Asset Recommendations and responsesThe Government's response to each Recommendation addressed to it is highlighted in bold.
BW funding and future organisation
The Council recommended that:
1.1 to meet the timescales and objectives set out in the Council's Report and these Recommendations and to maximise the opportunities for joint funding initiatives, Government should review the level of funding to BW to ensure that it is able to deal effectively with identified problems, implement substantiated expenditure plans and so make progress in a positive manner;
1.2 Government and BW consider how best to replace the existing 1968 Transport Act-based BW, which now reflects neither what BW is nor what it is trying to do, by a new national body with:
- responsibility for the long-term conservation and maintenance, regulation and sustainable management, development and promotion of BW waterways and any other waterways which could with advantage be transferred to BW and/or its successor;
- a status, organisation and objectives commensurate with its fundamental purpose of ensuring the conservation of a unique national heritage, environmental and recreational asset;
- a strong local character, within its national management framework, by devolving management responsibilities as far as practicable to local units working in creative partnership with local government, business and the voluntary sector;
- funding possibly by way of:
- contract with Government for services which beneficiaries cannot be charged for directly
- charges to users and income from waterway uses;
- grants for specific projects from Government and European bodies;
- greater commercial freedom to generate income and attract investment from business partnerships and joint ventures;
- local authority support in return for community benefits;
- monetary and practical benefits, including donations and bequests, which would accrue voluntarily to a new national body with the status and profile commensurate with its custodianship of a national heritage and recreation resource;
- open and meaningful consultation procedures;
- co-operative arrangements with the independent navigation bodies, allowing them to integrate with, or contract management to the new body, both entirely on a voluntary basis.
1.3 Government then issue a Green Paper to allow for full debate by all waterway interests with a view to securing legislation to establish the new national body as soon as practicable; such legislation to include:
- a statutory waterways ombudsman and a revised remit for the Council, in terms of strategic and consumer-oriented advice relating to all waterways, both to be funded directly by Government:
- a variety of other issues including highways legislation affecting disused waterways, BW liabilities for highway bridges across canals and an equitable solution to the problem of ancient rights.
The Government has accepted Recommendation 1.1. We announced a significant increase in the annual grant to British Waterways in our February 1999 statement on the future of British Waterways. The Government considers that most of the positive characteristics of the new body suggested by IWAAC in recommendation 1.2 can be achieved by the new policy framework agreed for British Waterways in Unlocking the potential (see Chapter 4), coupled with improved collaboration with the Environment Agency, and co-operation with other navigation authorities and waterway bodies (see Chapter 5).
National policy
National policy framework for the waterways
The Council recommended that:
2.1 Work on the main aims and priorities (for inland waterways) should be developed (by BW and EA in consultation with AINA) within the next 12 months into an integrated 3-5 year strategic policy framework for the waterways with realistic targets for achievement;
2.2 To provide a firm basis, Government should contribute a brief on the legislative and financial framework and range of departmental interests to be covered;
2.3 The framework should consider the state of the system including water supply issues, indicate priorities for sustainable conservation, use and development, and restoration, and assess resource/funding issues;
2.3 The framework should be published to help to mobilise support for waterway investment from Government, national bodies, funding agencies, local authorities, business, the voluntary sector and the wider community.
The AINA Strategy for Inland Navigation, Steering a New Course published in April 1999, provides the basis for a new national policy framework for the waterways. The Government will help AINA to implement the strategy. The Government sees a positive and developing role for AINA as a representative body for navigation authorities, and for IWAAC as an advisory resource for waterways generally. We wish to see both bodies foster partnership between navigation authorities to help harmonise management of the waterways (see paras. 5.3-5.8).
Waterways profile within the planning system
The Council recommended that:
3.1 Within the next 2 years, the Department of the Environment (with the Scottish and Welsh Offices), in consultation with the Department of National Heritage, AINA members and the Council, reviews existing planning policy guidance in England, Scotland and Wales to ensure that it provides an effective framework for conservation, development and restoration and considers the issue of a co-ordinated planning policy guidance document embracing waterways and waterway-related issues in each planning regime;
3.2 AINA, within the same period, promulgate advice on the effective use of the planning system by navigation bodies, including the importance of promoting the value and potential of waterways in government regional planning guidance and subsequently in structure and local plans;
3.3 For consistency of treatment, the Department of the Environment (DoE) extends the BW arrangements (for statutory consultation) to other navigation bodies in England;
The Government fully accepts the need to support the development of the inland waterways through the planning system. We will review the Planning Policy Guidance notes (PPGs) when they are revised to ensure that they contribute to this aim (see para. 6.73).
The Government recognises that it would be helpful to bring policy advice together to promote the best use of the inland waterways. We have therefore compiled a summary of each PPG which may be relevant to the waterways, accompanied by a commentary intended to improve the understanding of planning guidance as it applies to the waterways (see Appendix 3). In our view it would not be appropriate to issue a new planning policy guidance document devoted exclusively to the inland waterways because PPGs are intended to apply to broad strategic issues.
We will invite IWAAC to prepare a good practice document with a view to it being published jointly with DETR. This will explain the contribution that inland waterways can make to regeneration and other projects, and will highlight examples of good planning (see para. 6.73).
The Government does not wish to extend the list of statutory consultees for structure plans. However, PPG12 (December 1999) lists recommended consultees for all development plans. These include British Waterways, canal owners and navigation authorities who should be consulted on all matters relating to inland waterways and land adjacent to inland waterways (see Appendix 3, para. 18).
Waterways priority in the policies, plans and programmes of Government departments
The Council recommended that:
4.1 The DoE, as lead department in Government for waterways, promote them throughout its own policy functions and draws the attention of other relevant departments, including the Scottish and Welsh Offices, to the value and potential of the inland waterway system to contribute to the range of national policies and programmes identified in the Council's report;
4.2 The DoE further, when AINA members and the Council have identified areas for action under Recommendation 2, encourage Government departments and their sponsored public bodies to respond accordingly and where necessary secure review of Ministerial objectives to ensure that appropriate action be taken.
The Government accepts this Recommendation. We intend to integrate our policies for the waterways with other, related, policies to maximise the contribution the waterways can make to the life of the country (see Chapter 6).
National and local heritage designations
The Council recommended that:
5.1 National heritage and environmental agencies, local authorities, BW and other navigation bodies make the fullest use of appropriate designations (listing, scheduling, conservation areas, SSSIs etc);
5.2 Investigation of "World Heritage" status for the system as a whole be pursued by the appropriate Government Departments and agencies over the next 2 years;
5.3 Recognition of the European status of former freight waterways be pursued over the next 2 years by BW and the EA in collaboration with their European counterparts.
The Government did not accept the proposal made in 1998 that a significant part of the inland waterways system should be given World Heritage status because it believed that, despite the undoubted merits of the waterways, the proposal would not meet UNESCO's stringent criteria of outstanding universal value. However the UK's new Tentative List of potential World Heritage Sites announced on 6 April 1999 included several specific sites with historic canal connections.
Subject to UNESCO's requirements for new nominations, there will be another opportunity to consider the inland waterways for World Heritage status when the Tentative List is reviewed in five years' time. IWAAC is to consider whether there is a case for making a further bid, and, if so, how such a bid could best be presented. The Government will study IWAAC's findings carefully (see para. 6.26).
Management, conservation and restoration
Conservation
The Council recommended that:
6.1 The future of all waterways should be secured by management on a long-term, comprehensive, integrated and sustainable basis, each waterway having an individual management plan developed by open consultation and with special regard to its historical and ecological character, its wider corridor and measures to balance user demands upon it;
6.2 BW progresses its current efforts to develop the skills and culture necessary to achieve even higher standards of care of the built and natural components of its waterways;
6.3 The DoE encourages other waterway authorities to draw upon the conservation and management expertise within BW;
6.4 Consideration be given to establishing a Waterways Heritage Trust to assist BW (if Recommendation 1 is not acted upon) and other navigation bodies, with the conservation and appropriate re-use of redundant heritage buildings and to provide additional finance for high quality conservation work;
6.5 Waterway restoration by public, private and voluntary sector bodies be designed and executed in a manner which conserves historical and ecological character and ensures that subsequent management can be in accordance with the first part of this Recommendation. Traditional craft skills and materials should be used wherever appropriate.
The Government agrees with Recommendations 6.1-6.3 and looks to AINA to promote them among navigation authorities.
Last year the Government asked British Waterways to consult on a proposal for a British Waterways membership scheme, allied to a new independent charitable trust which would include among its objectives, restoring and conserving the waterways heritage and environment. We have considered the outcome of this exercise and have agreed that The Waterways Trust which has similar objectives to those described in Recommendation 6.4 should be the new trust (see paras. 4.18-25).
The Government commends Recommendation 6.5 to navigation authorities and the voluntary sector.
Waterway restoration and road schemes
The Council recommended that:
7.1 The DoE, as the lead department for waterways, should ensure that the discussions with the DTp/Highways Agency (and, where necessary, with the Scottish and Welsh Offices) are brought to a speedy conclusion and aim, in consultation with the Council and other interests, to have procedures devised and agreed by the end of 1997 to ensure adequate co-ordination between DoE and DTp on road proposals affecting waterways and vice versa.
The revised Planning Policy Guidance Note PPG13 will encourage local authorities to identify and, where appropriate, protect disused waterways where there is a realistic likelihood of a restoration project proceeding in whole or in part within the development plan period, by allocating the land in development plans and ensuring the sites and routes are not severed by other uses. We will also issue guidance in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges encouraging Highways Agency road designers to consider waterway restoration projects at the outset and to provide navigable crossings where appropriate (see paras. 6.51 - 53).
Economic, environmental and social value of waterway restoration
The Council recommended that:
8.1 BW with the support of AINA should press strongly for the establishment of a waterways category in the funding programmes of European, national, regional and local bodies, not least to maximise matching funding possibilities for projects supported by national lottery funding;
8.2 UK navigation authorities, in partnership with their European counterparts, seek government support for an EU funding programme for heritage, leisure and tourism projects on former freight waterways;
8.3 The priority list for restoration projects (see Recommendation 2) be reviewed annually by the Council and discussed by BW and others with key funding agencies;
8.4 All waterway authorities and other bodies involved in waterway restoration should make maximum use of funding opportunities from Government unemployment and training initiatives;
8.5 BW, EA and AINA consider how practical advice and representation from the centre for the waterways voluntary sector in England, Scotland and Wales in dealing with such matters as the use of unemployment and training initiatives, funding, contract management, long-term maintenance issues and so on, could be improved;
8.6 Progress on the measures set out in this Recommendation be reviewed by UK navigation authorities every two years.
The Government commends these Recommendations although we suggest that IWAAC may wish to reconsider the frequency with which it reviews the priority list for restoration projects (Recommendation 8.3). We would not want to stand in the way of navigation authorities seeking the establishment of a European funding programme (Recommendation 8.2) but we would wish to reserve our position on supporting such a move.
Use and development
The Council recommended:
9.1 Continuing and developing promotion by BW, EA (and relevant Scottish and Welsh organisations), in partnership with the tourism authorities and the trade, of cruising and other leisure opportunities with particular emphasis on the international marketing of UK waterway heritage holidays;
9.2 An investigation of what incentives might be given to the private sector to invest in waterway facilities such as off-line moorings and marinas;
9.3 The further development, wherever feasible, of waterways and their towpaths for water sales and transfer, angling, telecommunications etc, the testing of income-earning possibilities of activities such as licensed cycling, and a more pro-active approach to providing spending opportunities where there are large flows of casual visitors to specific waterway locations;
9.4 Government support for BW's business strategy in view of the crucial benefits for income generation, capital proceeds for reinvestment and waterway enhancement, and, subject to the need for public accountability and conservation objectives, maximum commercial freedom in the use of its assets;
9.5 More partnership packages with local authorities to open up access points and improve facilities and services for visitors, including the disabled;
9.6 Joint public/private/local authority initiatives to develop and support visitor attractions and other leisure opportunities of a wide range of types and scale appropriate to the character and qualities of each waterway location and, wherever appropriate, linked into local education networks;
9.7 Further urban regeneration partnership projects focussed on waterways, in particular in smaller and medium sized urban centres, on the lines of the very successful initiatives already taken and underway in the major cities;
9.8 A BW demonstration project for a rural or semi-rural waterway, in partnership with relevant countryside, local authority and other interests, to identify practical ways in which, within national policies, waterways can contribute to sustainable leisure use and rural diversification and rural areas can accommodate increased use and development on their waterways;
9.9 Progress on the measures suggested in this Recommendation be reviewed by UK navigation authorities every two years.
The Government commends these Recommendations to AINA and individual navigation authorities. The new policy framework for British Waterways will enable it to develop more longer-term partnerships with the private sector, with Regional Development Agencies and local authorities and with the voluntary sector and users, as recommended by 9.4.
Consultation
The Council recommended that:
10.1 BW consider publishing material on its longer-term strategy, priorities and targets in order to inform the debate on the future of the waterways, promote its management task and assist the consultation processes on more detailed user issues;
10.2 Waterway user, trade and restoration organisations consider developing a body (or limited series of bodies) complementary to that of AINA with a view to providing a more effective focus on waterway issues in dialogue with AINA and Government.
The Government has implemented Recommendation 10.1 in its new policy framework for British Waterways: British Waterways publishes its five-year plans annually.
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Published 27 June 2000
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