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Managing the estate
What the estate agents may call a desirable residence. A beautiful waterside property on the Crinan Canal in Scotland. BW
Keith Langston looks at the implications of the BW residential property review.
BRITISH Waterways has announced a review of their entire residential property estate. Reading through the press release did start to ring a few alarm bells. Or is it that because these days we are all aware, and maybe a little suspicious, of estate agent type double talk? For example ‘in need of some restoration’ we all know often means ‘a bit of a mess’ and that other classic ‘small and compact’ really means ‘no room to swing a cat!’
So should we read more into this missive from 64 Clarendon Road, or simply take it at face value, you choose.
Interpretation
With that in mind, let us take a piecemeal look at the announcement. They state that ‘the review will consider if there are better ways in which the estate, which includes a number of operational as well as heritage buildings, could be managed and cared for while making a greater contribution to the cost of maintaining the waterways network’.
• Can we interpret that as, rental prices may go up?
‘Rents from BW’s property portfolio make up a significant proportion of the annual £100-million it spends on caring for the nation’s 200-year-old canal infrastructure, yet residential properties, which represent around 10 per cent of BW’s estate by value, generate very little income for reinvestment in the historic network’.
• Can we interpret that as, rental prices will go up?
Robin Evans, BW Chief Executive, explains: “While ensuring that the operations and heritage of the waterways are safeguarded, the review will consider if there are better ways over and above the status quo to get more public benefit from our estate. Two options include transferring properties into a specialist associate company part-owned by BW or placing parts of the portfolio on the market and reinvesting the income to generate greater long term funds for canal maintenance.”
• Can we interpret that as, not only will rental prices go up but there will also be a sell-off?
‘BW’s residential estate comprises approximately 400 waterside properties across the UK, many dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries. BW has written to tenants affected by the review, including staff or pensioners. Although ownership of properties might transfer at some point in the future, tenancies would also transfer with terms remaining unchanged’.
• Can we interpret that as, rental prices will go up but no one will be put out on the towpath?
‘The review of BW’s residential estate will include the completion of a survey of the properties for which BW has advertised for advisers to undertake. Following an open procurement process, the advisers will be appointed by autumn 2008 allowing for the review to complete and a recommendation to be put forward to the BW Board expected in early 2009’.
• Can we interpret that as, rental prices will go up in 2009 after ratification by the BW board and some tenants will have new landlords?
BW adds that it has briefed its recognised trade unions and the British Waterways Advisory Forum (BWAF), an independent body of waterway interest groups set up to advise BW on key issues relating to its canals and rivers.
It would not be unreasonable for readers to couple this story with the EA announcement covering their intended sale of lock houses, although BW says that there are no similarities. Oh really! When is a sale not a sale? When it’s promoted as a residential property review!
Early Day move against Thames sell-off
Following the announcement by the Environment Agency plans to sell off lock keepers’ cottages on the Thames, opposition is swiftly mounting writes Keith Langston and Tony Hoyland.
THE IWA can never be accused of letting grass grow under their feet. Within days of the Environment Agency announcing their intention to de-man and dispose of Thames lock houses they had set objective wheels in motion.
Following the EA announcement that it was intending to de-man selected Thames Lock houses and dispose of them by sale or let, the IWA started organising an Early Day Motion. The IWA has, in addition, been carrying out some intensive parliamentary lobbying; together with writing to many Thames-side MPs in whose constituencies the lock houses are situated.
An Early Day Motion has now been tabled by Ian Taylor MP for Esher and Walton, concerning the proposed sell-off of Lock Houses on the Thames by the Environment Agency. Numbered 1587 the EDM states: ‘That this House is concerned about the Environment Agency’s proposal to dispose by sale or letting of 22 lock-keepers' homes along the Thames; recognises the importance of lock-keepers being resident in homes adjacent to locks to maintain safety on the river; fears for the welfare of the lock-keepers and their families; and calls on the Government to ask the Environment Agency to re-examine its decision so as to protect this unique part of the nation's river heritage and the tradition of lock-keepers living at the site of locks’.
IWA believes that this Early Day Motion is a reflection of the unprecedented concern and outrage of many people currently being expressed up and down the river. Former Thames navigation and recreation manager John Redmond, speaking in support of IWA’s campaign, said: “I am saddened to think that Thames managers are unable to find other efficiency savings that would have less of a permanent impact on the wellbeing of the River Thames, its users and local residents. Having staff living on site, and thus being quickly available to attend to weir work and emergencies has proven its worth time and again over the years.”
Sea Otter liquidation
THE well known and hitherto highly successful firm of Sea Otter Workboats Ltd has been forced into liquidation after its sales agents, Walton Marine cancelled all future orders with effect from 31 March writes Bob Clarke.
On Friday 23 May a Creditors’ Meeting agreed that the firm be put into liquidation. A spokesman for the administrators said it was ‘doubtful’ if there would be any money available to be passed on to creditors.
In a statement issued earlier in May, Sea Otter managing director Paul Hobson said the decision to put the firm into the hands of administrators was ‘with immediate effect’.
The statement read: “Walton Marine cancelled all future orders on March 31 and under the instructions of our accountant we have spent the last month trying to generate sales (open weekends and ‘special offers’). Unfortunately this hasn’t generated any sales, which means we are unable to trade forward. If we were to do so this would have been seen as fraudulent trading and none of us at Sea Otter want to jeopardise our reputation and the reputation of the product by defrauding the general public.”
He said that all but one customer sale had been completed and delivered and the only other boat still in build would be completed and delivered to the customer before the end of May.
Winds of change
The word small in ‘Small Northwich/Star class iron composite butty’ is only a relative term when it is seen filling the grounds of the college.
Even though there does not appear to be much activity on the Grantham Canal, there is plenty going on beneath the surface,
writes Tony Hoyland.
RESULTS of a wildlife study could be the catalyst for a chain of events that would see boats returning to the Grantham Canal.
The research found that suitable dredging of the Grantham Canal to navigational standards (suitable for boats) could benefit the ecological interest of the waterway.
The £35,000 project, commissioned by the Grantham Canal Partnership, set out to assess the options for restoration and any ecological impacts arising.
Importantly the study explored different scenarios ranging from doing nothing, to restoring the canal to the full-scale navigation at the time of its construction in 1797.
It is clear that at one end of the scale doing nothing would eventually lead to the silting up of the canal and the loss of fragile ecosystems abundant in the five mile section, between Redmile and Harby, and a second section at Kinoulton, currently designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest.
While at the other a full-scale restoration of the 33-mile canal to its original state is not feasible in the current financial climate.
So it was good news when the research concluded – ‘The ideal restoration would be to create a channel of varying widths, which would reflect the significance of various habitats along the canal. Restoration work would also be phased so that wildlife communities are given time to re-colonise newly created habitats’.
Kevin Mann, Grantham Canal Regeneration Manager, added: “We had always known that carefully managed and programmed restoration could be beneficial to the canal's ecology, now we have a scientific study to support this view".
Meanwhile, moves to get a trip boat operating on the canal are currently held up due to British Waterways insisting on adequate moorings be put in place on the canal. Mike Stone, Chairman Grantham Canal Society, said: “Funding is needed to build permanent landing stages at either end of the section of canal, which was made navigable for last year’s National Trailboat Festival – one at Woolsthorpe and one alongside the A1.”
Wasting our time?
Stuart Sampson comments on BW’s long awaited Customer Service Standards
PERHAPS BW should add a new Safety Standard that requires all brick walls to be padded at head height to reduce the risk of self-inflicted injury to user group representatives. It should please as many people as the ‘bollards at narrow locks’ standard!
Seriously, what is the most important single all-encompassing issue with customers?
Surely it is, almost by definition, BW’s long awaited Customer Service Standards. Have BW consulted with customers about them?
No – not a lot. I suppose in passing they were mentioned at the last meeting of the Boating Facility Working Group and we were told our input would be ‘incorporated’, but I am not sure I can see much of NABO’s detailed submission evident in the 79 standards recently issued.
So what did we try to do to make things better for boaters?
We went proactive and did a bit of the consultation BW should have done. We set up an online survey so customers could score the standards by priority and current achievement. We bring you the results. What did BW do with them?
“Thank you very much; we will pass them on to our Market Research Team.” Since then – nowt.
Why? Because ‘they are not based on a truly random sample and the participants are self-selecting’ and yet BW, through the British Waterways Advisory Forum and the Waterway Users and Special Interest Group (WUSIG), expects voluntary representatives to bring to the debating table the views of their members. Are they expected to be random and not ‘self-selecting’?
If they aren’t, are they of any value? So, are we wasting our time?
BW is adamant in pointing out that consultation is NOT a democratic process. It really doesn’t matter how many people think the same, they won’t be swayed by numbers, or surveys (unless they have commissioned them themselves), or any form of petition. While they have no direct commercial competition that might hurt them in the wallet, they can interpret or ignore expressed views any way they like.
Towpath trail
Between issue news...
MARTINE O’Callaghan and Phillippa Greenwood are on a mission to walk every canal in Britain, with an epic towpath trail rambling 2000 miles between Cornwall and Scotland.
The two women previously lived on a narrowboat, but now they’ve swapped their boat for boots to experience the canals from a different viewpoint. Between towpaths they return home to update their new website, www.coolcanals.co.uk, which follows their progress.
“We love walking the waterways,” says Phillippa. ”It’s a great way to experience these historic trade routes. We meet lots of people on the towpaths, and while most agree it’s vital to keep the towpaths free and accessible, everyone we meet also wants to see narrowboats cruising navigable water.”
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