These businesses invented the whole of the waterways infrastructure of marinas, boatyards and chandleries;

they invested their own money in the hire boat, hotel boat and passenger boat businesses which attracted the public onto the waterways, and it was the small boatbuilding companies making affordable boats which created the market which now sees thousands of people spending their time and money on waterways pursuits.

It is the very existence of that complex infrastructure today which allows BW to declare itself a market leader in the field of leisure and tourism and lord it over a waterways network which has finally come good after some 200 hundred years of failure. Now it seems it wants it all - so much for the partnership between the private and the public sector.

What price now the sworn undertakings given by BW to the industry, BMF and Parliamentary Select Committees back in 1995 that it would never use its monopoly position to gain advantage over the businesses which operated on its system?

It would appear that even as those promises were being made BW was already planning to do just that.

Of course the roles of who provides the track and who provides the services should be distinct and clearly separated out. As it is there are now so many questionable grey areas that it is surely high time for the industry to call on government for a proper enquiry into just what BW is up to.

Yours faithfully, Di Murrell T&D Murrell