IWA issues new political briefing
Following the leaked list of quangos under threat in the forthcoming Spending Review, and ahead of the current crop of party conferences, the Inland Waterways Association published briefing notes for politicians.
INLAND WATERWAYS: Briefing notes have been published by the Inland Waterways Association (IWA) campaigning for a waterway conservancy, writes Harry Arnold.
The first copies were given to IWA members at the association’s national annual general meeting at Market Drayton on Saturday September 25, but the document was officially launched on Sunday on the Boating Alliance stand at the weekend’s Labour Party Conference in Manchester.
The Inland Waterways: How a Conservancy Would Get The Best For Your Community is the IWA’s proposals on how the proposed mutualisation of British Waterways (BW) and the Environment Agency (EA) – if run as a national waterways conservancy - should work to the benefit of local communities and the nation.
It’s in effect an update and modernisation of the original proposals in founder Robert Aickman’s National Inland Waterways Conservancy of 50 years ago, honed and well presented in a concise and colourful short document. The majority of Mr Aickman’s ideas still hold good today, particularly in the current situation of the government’s proposals for turning BW into a charity and possibly including EA’s navigations.
The document is aimed at briefing national and local politicians and the public and delegates at next weekend’s Conservative Party Conference – being held right in the centre of the canal network next to the Birmingham Canal’s main line – will get their copies via the Boating Alliance stand.
Get your copy by emailing Jo Gilbertson at the IWA - jo.gilbertson@waterways.org.uk or telephoning 01494 783453 ext.611.
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