I know that many of you right now are feeling and seeing a sense of real jeopardy for our canal network and its future, with stoppages, a lack of water, uncertainty about licensing, communications that can be too little or too late, and a feeling that things are not moving fast enough.
The current drought has brought out a lot of this – we have been really challenged by trying to manage water across a canal network that has seen no rain for weeks on end.
On top of the dry and hot conditions we are also dealing with a significant number of infrastructure challenges that mean that, in some places, even where water is available, we cannot always move it to where it is needed most.
These factors combined have led to the restrictions and closures on the network that many of you are facing, which I know are incredibly frustrating for boaters and canal businesses.
All of it creates a perfect storm. In my first nine months I have seen an unpredictable breach that will cost several millions to repair, five named storms, and we are now in the third ‘once-in-200-year’ drought in five years. And it feels as though it’s just going to get worse unless we all start thinking and acting differently.
I thought it was important that you heard from me directly, as the still newish CEO, about my take on these issues.
I joined the Trust because I could see so much potential in the canal network, and I still do. I am committed to finding ways to bring maximum benefit to all users and to communities the canals run through.
I could also see the challenges. The last few months have really brought these to life but I now understand them better.
What we are doing about the situation
Operationally, the Trust has mobilised its highest level of response to manage and coordinate our immediate actions. As communications sent on Friday said, we are changing our planned maintenance to give priority to engineering work that addresses movement constraints on key routes where there are higher levels of boats and boating businesses, as well as water transfer obligations. These are difficult calls to make as it
means other work will inevitably get delayed. The team is working urgently on a revised plan to undertake key repairs while protecting the network from running dry and we’ll provide updates via the website and notice pages.
I don’t know how long we’ll be in this situation or how long we’ll need to operate in this way. In the meantime, I really value your support in helping to save water by sharing locks where possible, closing gates and paddles, and letting us know about low water, leaks and other issues – thank you.
Why are we experiencing these difficulties?
Apart from the absence of rain, there is so much being said about why we are here, the difficulties we are experiencing and what the Trust should be doing right now.
Well, it’s not because we are a charity. We would almost certainly have faced even greater challenges had we remained in government. Nor is it because the Trust is overstaffed - if anything, we have too few people spread too thinly across a network that faces growing and competing demands.
Part of the reason we are here is that we are managing infrastructure that requires more investment than has been available. For decades we have not been able to prioritise the most important things the network needed at the same time as responding to the urgent things, such as reservoir safety measures. That is hurting us all right now – even before we add in changing patterns of use, the decline in our government funding, hugely increasing costs of civil engineering projects and the big one: climate change.
For us as a navigation authority, climate change is now making all those challenges much more acute. Across England and Wales, drought conditions have been declared after weeks of exceptionally dry weather and hot temperatures. The reservoirs, feeder channels and other water sources that supply our canals are under increasing pressure with no sign of relief.
Working differently to reduce future risk
Well, for a start we are looking at everything we do and how we do it to find ways of delivering more with less. There are changes that might not be visible to boaters but will help us deliver better. For example, we have brought together all our canal-side work so that we can think differently about how we prioritise looking after our water, how we fix the big stuff, how we make that connection between the planning of all our jobs and the needs of boaters and other canal users.
We have brought together all our customer-facing teams in one place, and we are beginning to review and improve every aspect of our business to keep boaters at the heart of our processes and our thinking. This is happening now. It will take us a while, but I believe it will begin to make a real and visible difference to you soon.
We are also trying to do things differently. On the issue of licensing, everyone I spoke to said to me that the Trust has a real problem: nobody trusts you, they believe your consultations are a sham and that you just do what you want anyway. So, this time, we are doing it differently. There was an independent Commission to look at the issues and make recommendations. We have taken their recommendations and, as we move towards making more concrete proposals for future licensing, we are now using a collaborative, bottom-up approach, all across the country, to build trust, to get views, and to show we haven’t made our mind up in advance. I urge as many of you as possible to engage in this.
People are telling me to get on with implementing things, that I am only listening to one group, that I have already made my mind up. What I see is several different boating communities who want different things – to the point that many amazing and committed staff in the Trust feel that whatever they do they can’t get it right. For example, many boaters want early information posted about stoppages as soon as possible while some boating businesses don’t want us to talk about drought because it will affect bookings. The income raised from licence fees is extremely important but, on its own, is insufficient to keep the canals alive; we spend around four times this amount each year on things that ultimately help us to look after the network. Within that we face difficult choices almost each day about where to put our resources, knowing that any choice will leave some groups unhappy. There are many other stakeholders we have to consider as well. Which leads me to…
What do we have to do next?
I have a plan as to how we can save the network and help it thrive. The changes we are making to the Trust will make it more effective and efficient. As a result, our trustees have signalled their agreement to release significant levels of capital from our reserves over the next few years that we can start to invest to improve the quality of the network and address the challenges imposed by climate change. There are conditions to this of course, and controls.
To secure navigation for the long term we need additional income. So this is why we are working with government, major corporates, water companies and others to bring greater long-term investment into the network – for water transfer, drought and flooding resilience and environmental protection. Essentially for being a core part of the nation's long-term water and climate change resilience plan. Being able to secure money for navigation without this extra investment, in the face of all the challenges we are facing, is not realistic. But I believe the plan is possible and we are already doing it. Just six weeks ago Andy Burnham and I launched a prospectus for the role of canals in the economic, social and well-being future of Greater Manchester - this will directly benefit boaters.
I know this feels hard right now as we face the consequences of the current conditions. We have more difficult weeks and months ahead but we will get through this drought and repair the damage that will fall out of it.
Our longer-term challenge is to make the network more resilient and better able to respond to these increasingly frequent environmental events. This is a big challenge and that’s why I am asking all of us to work together. We want the same thing – a thriving and navigable network.
If we all try to listen a little more, give a little bit up, not think that any of us have all the answers, then there is a chance we can do this, together. That’s what I am fighting for. I need to be fighting alongside all of you to make this happen.
Campbell Robb
