First, a brief background from BB. Then it's into the British Waterways statements, followed by the British Marine Federation's statements.

In 2000, BW set up British Waterways Marinas Ltd (BWML) and began acquiring marinas. In operating those marinas, the BMF - which has a lot of BW customers as its members - considered BW was failing to comply fully with competition law.

This contention was backed by complaints the BMF received from BW customers.

Both sides have taken legal advice. The BMF has a top QC offering advice and has shared that advice with BW. BW has two law firms and counsel advising it. I don't think BW has made its own advice available to the BMF.

In short, BW says the BMF refuses to provide details of the complaints against BW, while the BMF says BW refuses to provide details of its compliance procedures.

Mediation attempts through the Office of Fair Trading fell apart.

The two sides have now fallen out very publicly after BW published a letter from chief executive Robin Evans to its customers and sent it to the press on November 9.

The BMF responded on November 10.

BW sent a letter to its customers on November 21.

The BMF published a more detailed response to the original BW missive on November24.

The BW November 9 letter is published here, together with its Annexe offering more detailed information.

The BMF November 24 statement is published here.

Try to read right through the statements from both parties - there's a huge amount of information in here. See what you make of the statements and the position in which the two parties now find themselves. Then read my comment on page 2.

Comments for publication may be emailed to me - pnash@boatingbusiness.co.uk - or sent by post to The Editor, Boating Business, The Old Mill, Lower Quay, Fareham, Hants PO16 0RA.

The BW November 9 open letter from Robin Evans to BW's customers.

Marina Policy - update on discussions with British Marine Federation I am writing to you because I think it is right that you are updated on developments on this very important subject.

At British Waterways (BW), we welcomed the recent dialogue between non-executive directors of both organisations as a means of increasing our mutual understanding about trading in the marina market. In the light of BMF's decision not to continue this dialogue, we felt it important to provide this briefing so that our stakeholders can understand the situation and the full range of measures being taken to ensure BW trades fairly in the marina market.

We welcome BMF's unequivocal statements that the Federation is not seeking to prevent BW from competing in the marinas and moorings markets. We also believe that BMF accepts our absolute commitment to trade fairly.

However, at the last meeting between non-executive directors, BMF presented a memorandum that effectively cancelled all further meetings and reversed its previous decision to participate in an external review of BW's practices and procedures (see Item 12 below and Annex A). In so doing, BMF made it clear its continued involvement was conditional on BW's agreement with the BMF legal viewpoint.

BW has its own Counsel's opinion that fundamentally disagrees with the Counsel's opinion procured by BMF. We are very comfortable with our legal advice and could not therefore agree to BMF's demands.

It is unfortunate that we cannot agree on the legal issues, but this is by no means unusual, given the complexity of the law and the different perspectives of the two organisations. BW believes that we should not allow this difference to come between us as we interact constructively on many issues of common interest.

As with any large organisation we need to have in place a range of checks and balances that will alert us or our stakeholders to any unfair or potentially unfair trading activities. These practices and procedures are already in place and we would have preferred to continue joint meetings with BMF to develop them further.

However the recent BMF memorandum makes it clear this is no longer possible. BW will therefore continue with its plans for an external review of those practices and procedures and the development of a Code of Practice that consolidates and develops the checks and balances BW already has in place.

The process and procedures that are already or are soon to be put in place are listed below.

Yours sincerely, ROBIN EVANS Chief Executive

ANNEX A British Waterways processes & procedures to ensure fair trading in moorings & marinas 1. BWML established as a separate legal entity Creating a separate company ensures that there is complete transparency with regard to any transfer of funds or resource from BW into BWML. BWML publishes its own Annual Report & Accounts so there is transparency in its financial structure and performance.

This ensures there can be no subsidy of BWML by public funds. This was an early concern of BMF and its members.

2. BW Marinas Protocol BW produced and published a protocol that sets out how BW would interact with independent marina operators (and prospective operators) including BWML.

Essentially this publicly commits BW to treating BWML in just the same way as any other third party marina operator.

A copy of the Protocol has been provided to BMF.

3. Oxera Review of BW's moorings and pricing mechanisms Oxera investigated and reported on BW's pricing methodologies for its on-line moorings, and confirmed such methodology was compliant with competition obligations.

4. PriceWaterhouse Coopers Audit To provide an independent, transparent and public scrutiny of BW's actual day to day operations, we instructed Pricewaterhouse Coopers ('PWC' - the Government appointed auditors of BW) to advise whether BW were conforming to and operating under the procedures set out in the protocol. The report of their enquiry confirmed that we were conforming to and operating under the procedures set out in the protocol.

A copy of the report prepared by PWC has been provided to BMF and is available on our website.

5. Fair Trading Group The BW Board is appointed by the Secretary of State and comprises entirely of nonexecutive directors. The Board takes its governance role very seriously and is properly compliant with the Combined Code on Corporate Governance (the code of governance applicable to all public companies quoted on the Stock Exchange).

The Fair Trading Group meets formally 6 times per annum but commissions its own reports and enquiries on continuing basis using independent advisors, the internal audit function and by direct dialogue with the Executive. In this way, there is a continual scrutiny of BW and BWML activities by publicly appointed NonExecutive Directors.

The Board created a Fair Trading Group to provide ongoing monitoring of all BW business activities to ensure fair trading compliance. The FTG comprises 2 non-executive.

Directors who scrutinise the activities of the executive and reports back to into the Audit Committee (or direct to the Board when appropriate).

The FTG terms of reference have been given to BMF.

6. Internal Audit Internal Audit reports directly into the Audit Committee not to the Executive. Internal Audit has a programme of specific audits and a roving brief to investigate and monitor the activities of BW and BWML to ensure compliance with the Marina Protocol and Fair Trading generally.

7. BW invitation to Office of Fair Trading to consider adequacy of BW procedures We invited the Office of Fair Trading to review our fair trading processes and procedures to ensure they were fully compliant with the law. The Office of Fair Trading had already had discussions with Defra and BMF and concluded they did not want to carry out such a review.

8. BW Legal Advice BW has, in addition to its internal legal advice, received competition law advice from two leading city firms and two leading counsel, including one of the most eminent lawyers in the country. That advice contradicts the propositions put forward by BMF counsel about conflicts of interest and BW's inability to trade fairly.

BW is very comfortable with the advice it has received.

9. New Marinas Unit We have created a New Marinas Unit to:

reduce the number of people dealing with third party sensitive commercial information; all potential marina operator business (for marinas of over 50 berths) will be handled by a small core team under the direction of an executive director (not the Commercial Director) operate and act as custodians of standard procedures for dealing with marina businesses facilitate and ensure that where waterway units deal with smaller marina businesses, standard procedures are followed.

10. Marina Opportunities Guide To encourage increased private sector investment in marinas and moorings on the network, BW is preparing this guide. It will identify where we consider there is greatest opportunity for investment and commit BW to a clear process of appraising proposals and agreeing terms in accordance with the protocol.

This is being prepared with help and assistance from The Yacht Harbour Association.

BMF have seen all current drafts.

11. Ombudsman Scheme BW's Internal Complaints Procedure and the Waterways Ombudsman Scheme are open to any complaint about any activity BW is engaged in. This includes complaints about non-compliance with the Marina Protocol.

The Waterways Ombudsman is independent of BW and was appointed by a Committee that includes user and marine industry representatives.

Any competitor in the marinas and moorings market may make use of the Ombudsman Scheme provided their turnover is less than £1 million (and without any limitation if their complaint concerns non-compliance with the Marina Protocol).

BW has committed itself to implement any recommendation or finding made by the Ombudsman. This is a significant commitment and not one that many (if any) other organisations have made.

BMF have a copy of the Internal Complaints Procedure and details of the Waterways Ombudsman Scheme.

12. Expert Review of BW's practices and procedures We intend to appoint competition experts Oxera to undertake a comprehensive review of the management of BW's fair trading obligations with regard to its mooring and marina activity. The review will specifically address the issues raised by BMF.

Indeed we have asked Oxera to meet with BMF so they can fully understand and then consider the issues raised by BMF.

Oxera are leading economic consultants on competition issues in the UK and worldwide, regularly advising governments.

We are using them because of their acknowledged expertise on competition issues.

BMF have been given a copy of the brief to Oxera.

13. Code of Practice BW are currently bringing together all the relevant policies, practices and procedures in a Code of Practice that will be issued to all staff involved in marina and moorings activities. Its implementation will be monitored by Internal Audit and the FTG.

November 21 letter from Robin Evans to BW moorings and marinas customers MARINA POLICY - UPDATE I wrote to you recently setting out the steps that BW has taken to ensure it operates fairly and transparently in the inland waterways moorings and marinas market. This was necessary because the BMF had chosen not to continue dialogue with BW on this important matter.

Expert review of BW's Practices and Procedures starts I think it is now important to let you know that the expert review of BW's practices and procedures (item 12 on my last list) and the formulation of the code of practice (item 13) are both going ahead. OXERA has been asked to take account of BMF's concerns through direct dialogue. I very much hope BMF will reverse its decision not to take part in this dialogue.

Complaints about unfair competition by BW After I last wrote to you, the BMF issued a response in which they wrote that they were aware of "?. a range of complaints concerning unfair competition in the marinas and moorings market?. .". Despite repeated requests from British Waterways for the details of these complaints to be revealed, the BMF has refused to disclose to us any information relating to these allegations.

I want to assure you that I take very seriously any allegations about BW competing unfairly.

It is essential that BW trade fairly and support the inland boating business.

Since the BMF has refused to disclose details of these alleged complaints, I want to make a personal request to you. If you know of any examples of unfair competition involving BW, I want you to write to me. I give you my personal assurance that any issues brought to my attention will be thoroughly investigated and responded to.

I also want to personally assure you that raising these concerns will in no way prejudice or affect any future dealings you have with BW.

Additionally, I would like to remind you that BW operates a streamlined, unbiased and entirely transparent Complaints Procedure which guarantees fair consideration of all griev-ances brought to our attention. The independent Waterways Ombudsman scheme has also been further strengthened, and can now consider complaints from businesses with a group turnover of up to £1m per annum.

Furthermore, the Waterways Ombudsman Committee, established to ensure absolute independence of the Scheme from BW, includes three waterway-related members, of which two are from the marine trade.

Growing Business for the Inland Waterways We want to work together for mutual benefit to grow the inland boating market. To this end, BW is working to launch a Marina Investment Guide shortly. We expect this to attract private sector investment in moorings to meet rising demand. BW is committed to working with the trade openly and transparently so that the business potential of the waterways can be realised. I am personally committed to ensuring this happens.

Yours sincerely, ROBIN EVANS