Boaters' Update August 2009

The National Festival & Boat Show
The Inland Waterways Association’s (IWA) National Festival & Boat Show takes place over the bank holiday weekend (29-31 August) at Redhill Marina in Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Nottinghamshire.

Tickets cost £8.50 per adult, £7.00 for concessions and children under 16 go free. Families can take advantage of the IWA’s Super Family Saver Deal bought in advance for just £14 (for a family of two adults and up to three children). The deal includes vouchers for local attractions and entry into a prize draw for a waterway holiday. For further information visit the IWA website or ring the IWA’s advance ticket line on 01494 783 453.

You’ll find BW at stand H20 close to the Festival Arena where you can renew your boat licence, find some fun waterway themed activities for kids and find out more about BW’s plans to become a third sector organisation. Come along to one of BW’s customer meetings in the Festival Theatre to put questions directly to BW’s senior management about the running of the canals or any other issues affecting the waterways. There are two sessions, the first on Saturday at 10.30am is chaired by BW’s marketing director, Simon Salem, and head of customer relations, Caroline Killeavy. The second session is on Sunday at 2pm hosted by BW’s operations director, Vince Moran, and head of boating, Sally Ash.

The festival site is next to the new East Midlands Parkway station so why not leave the car at home and take advantage of a ‘Kids Go Free’ offer from anywhere on East Midlands Trains network during the festival weekend. Visit www.eastmidlandstrains/kidsgofree to download a voucher.

Find out more information about the IWA National Festival & Boat Show

Find out more about BW’s 2009 summer customer meetings

Prefer to pay your bills by cash?
BW is introducing a new payment card for people who prefer to use cash. Boaters who currently have to go out of their way to visit a BW office or outstation to renew their licence or mooring permit or pay their rent using cash will soon be able to drop in to their local post office or supermarket instead.

Using BW’s payment card is quick, easy and convenient and there's no charge. It’s just a matter of handing in the card along with the cash at the Post Office or PayPoint outlet. The cashier processes the payment and issues a paper receipt. The money transfers to BW and is automatically credited to the customer’s account where it will be matched against the relevant invoice. Application forms must still be sent to BW’s Shared Service Centre in Leeds in the usual way.

If you prefer paying by cash and would like to receive a card, simply send an email including your BW customer number and/or boat index number to enquiries.hq@britishwaterways.co.uk.

Find your nearest PayPoint outlet

BW’s 2020 strategy update
Following a positive initial response from stakeholders and customers, BW continues to research its options to become a third sector organisation. The expanded proposals will go part way to answering many of the questions posed since the publication of Twenty Twenty: A Vision for the Future of our Canals and Rivers.

BW’s chief executive, Robin Evans comments: “Over the next couple of months we will be conducting more research, which includes speaking to successful third sector organisations and other experts in the field. In particular we will look at governance, fundraising and marketing in the charitable sector and what a contract with Government might entail.

“The new strategy has been generally well received both inside BW and externally by boaters, other customers, stakeholders and the wider public. However, there is a hunger for more detail about how the change might work. It is important that we keep up the momentum towards providing a sustainable future for the nation’s waterways without forgetting the £30m gap between what needs to be spent on the waterways and what is currently available.”

Read more information about BW’s Twenty Twenty Vision

Restructure update – 13 waterway units
The names of BW’s eleven new waterway units in England and Wales and the two waterway units in Scotland have been announced and will become operational from the 1 October 2009.

Waterways names (waterway managers):

North West Waterways (Debbie Lumb)
North East Waterways (Laurence Morgan)
Manchester & Pennine Waterways (David Baldacchino)
North Wales & Borders Waterways (Wendy Capelle)
Central Shires Waterways (Darren Green)
East Midlands Waterways (Sean McGinley)
South Wales & Severn Waterways (Nick Worthington)
West Midlands Waterways (Dean Davies)
South East Waterways (Jeff Whyatt)
Kennet & Avon Waterways (Mark Stephens)
London Waterways (Simon Bamford)
Highlands Canals (Russell Thomson)
Lowlands Canals (Phil Martin)

In BW’s new structure, activities such as licence enforcement, managing moorings and delivering major engineering projects will be managed by central specialist teams allowing the new waterways to focus on improving customer service and day to day waterway operations. These changes together with other cost saving initiatives will allow a further £10m to be redirected into waterways maintenance.

Look out for BW’s new waterway map with boundary details from the 1 October 2009.

Failure to display campaign
BW has launched a ‘failing to display’ campaign as part of its continued focus on tackling licence evasion. You will notice new black and yellow stickers affixed to the windows of ‘non-displaying’ boats to remind boaters to display their licence and to highlight the drain on BW’s resources when time is spent following up seemingly unlicensed boats.

BW’s marketing & customer service director, Simon Salem comments: “We’ve a great many customers out on the cut who take the time to point out unlicensed boats. This, together with BW’s robust enforcement processes and continued commitment to tackle the issue, is making a real difference in further reducing evasion rates across the network. However, the public perception is different if people do not display their licence, so the main purpose of this campaign is to persuade all boaters to display proudly – to show that they are doing their bit to help fund the waterways. This will also save us time in responding to reports of unlicensed boats that turn out to be licensed – time that could be much better spent tackling the real evaders who perhaps think that they are above contributing towards the cost of maintaining the waterways network.”

During the first half of 2009, BW’s patrol staff have recovered almost £1.5m of overdue licence fee income and currently have further enforcement proceedings underway on over 1,200 boats. Since the introduction of a £150 late payment charge for boaters letting their licence lapse for more than one month after expiry, there has been a marked increase in people renewing on time. Now, 95% of boats have their licence renewed within one month of expiry (up from 82%).

For information about BW’s boat licensing

Boat checker update
Last month BW received 102 sightings of unlicensed boats, logged until the end of July. Of these reports 11% related to boats which had already re-licensed and a further 65% were already in BW’s enforcement process. 9% resulted in new cases being opened for action, and the remaining 15% were boats which were not identifiable through a valid boat index number but the details have been passed to our enforcement teams for further investigation.

Visit the online boat checker

BW mooring vacancies
The development of BW’s mooring vacancies auction system is coming along well and is in the final stage of testing with the help of a small band of volunteers (thank you!). Some great feedback and suggestions have been received, all of which can be viewed on BW's volunteer page at http://bwmoorings-phase1.ws-dev.positive-dedicated.net/volunteers.php. If you would like to get involved or just share your ideas between now and mid-September, please feel free to register on the test site.

Water Watch 2009
Despite the hotter and drier start to the year, the majority of the BW network reservoir holdings are stable. For some parts of the BW network however, the weather has meant that a number of the reservoirs used to supply the canals have had less inflow and refill, and therefore increased drawdown to meet canal demands.

Both the Leeds & Liverpool Canal and the Peak Forest and Macclesfield Canal reservoir groups are currently at lower holdings than each of the corresponding months in the period 1998 - present. This situation has resulted in some restrictions to navigation being applied in order to conserve water resources for later in the boating season.

For more details on navigation restrictions, log on to www.waterscape.com/stoppages and sign-up for stoppage and restriction email alerts. Alternatively, contact the local BW office before planning a cruise.

Find your local BW office.

Liverpool Canal Link wins Street Design award
The recently completed Liverpool Canal Link and Pier Head public realm has been chosen as the winner of the waterways category in the Street Design Awards 2009. The award was presented to the project partners at the Link last month and rewards innovation and good practice in urban street design schemes undertaken by, or on behalf of, local authorities.

BW’s project manager for the Liverpool Canal Link, Richard Longton said: “The Link has been a tremendous success and it’s great to see it being acknowledged as a project that has significantly enhanced the network. Since it was opened in April, the large number of boats coming through the Link has once again brought the famous Pier Head to life. The whole area is rejuvenated and is proving a popular attraction both to boaters and to visitors on foot. The exceptional quality of design of the Canal Link and surrounding area has truly demonstrated how our waterways can provide a focal point to rejuvenating our city centres.”

If you would like an application pack to sail along the Link please email lcl@britishwaterways.co.uk or contact the BW Wigan office on 01942 405700 and check out these useful booking tips on the BW website.

BW work boat runs on cooking oil
If you notice the smell of fish and chips floating down the Grand Union Canal and wonder where it’s coming from you might be surprised by the answer. You may have come across BW’s first biofuel work boat, Aylesbury.

BW is trialing a new scheme that has the potential to convert many of its boats to run on cooking oil – a by-product of the restaurant industry. Using this type of biofuel has a variety of benefits: it reuses a waste product that would otherwise be thrown away; it is kinder to the environment than diesel; and production is sustainable.

BW London’s operations supervisor, Sam Thomas said: "The treated cooking oil performs just as well as diesel and is a sustainable solution to reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. The oil does smell of fish and chips which can lead to some rumbling stomachs, but it’s a small price to pay for an environmentally friendly fuel source that fits in with the 3Rs – reduce, reuse and recycle."

Read about BW’s first biofuel work boat

BW’s winter stoppages programme
As reported in the May Boaters’ Update following feedback from boaters, BW is making a couple of changes to the way winter stoppage information is publicised. Now that access to the internet is so widespread the plan is for stoppage details to be maintained exclusively on waterscape.com. This means that the risk of boaters making cruising plans on the basis of out of date information is greatly reduced.

Anyone wanting a paper copy can still obtain one by contacting BW’s customer service centre on 0845 671 5530 or emailing enquiries.hq@britishwaterways.co.uk who will print the latest information on the day the request is received.

Look out for BW’s 2009-10 winter stoppage programme live on waterscape.com at the end of September 2009.

Stay up to date with progress on winter stoppage planning and details of current advice and any emergency restrictions at www.waterscape.com/stoppages.

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Sign up for your free monthly boaters’ e-newsletter, the weekly waterscape newsletter or stoppage alerts by clicking on www.waterscape.com/signup

Last updated: 17/08/2009