SAVE OUR WATERWAYS

- the way forward

It’s time waterway users started ‘voting with their feet’ to secure the future of the waterways. TONY HAYNES

SOW is the acronym of Save Our Waterways, a campaign dedicated to securing the long term future of our inland waterways.

We started as an informal campaign group, and during the process of catalysing dozens of protest events and gathering over 40,000 signatures on our petition, we realised that most users of the waterway are unrepresented. So, just 18 months later, we decided to transform SOW into a membership based organisation that could represent the casual users of our inland waterways.

As stated in the constitution of our newly created membership based organisation Save Our Waterways is dedicated:

It’s time waterway users started ‘voting with their feet’ to secure the future of the waterways. TONY HAYNES

To campaign:
a) To secure the long term future of the inland waterways of Great Britain
b) To ensure that the waterways receive adequate funding and effective maintenance and management
c) To protect the waterways as part of our national heritage to ensure that they continue to provide leisure, recreation, transport and employment
d) By providing a forum for all who want thriving and vibrant waterways for work or pleasure
e) In collaboration with any group or organisation that shares the above aims.

But what does that mean to the average person that uses the waterways? Several people have pointed out that at first read our constitution is not that much different from that of other waterways groups. In a way, that shouldn't be surprising as we are all aiming for the same overall objective – the long term future of our inland waterways, but the point does deserve some explanation.
So what is different about SOW?

The essential difference between SOW and other user groups is that we will be specifically targeting the casual user of our waterways. By and large, the members of existing user groups have a specialised interest in the waterways through a recreation, sport or hobby.

Surveys by BW suggest that these users represent less than 10 per cent of all visits to the waterways and it is the remaining 90-95 per cent that we see as our potential members. Although, that is not to say that we do not welcome 'specialist' users as they will clearly provide the all-important background knowledge that is necessary to any new organisation.

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