Maintaining canals: who should pay?

The upkeep of canals will be a burden during the recession. Who will take responsibility for this, and what will it mean for developers? Kaye Wiggins reports

Over a thousand used drugs needles and bottles of methadone were found near the canalside in Burnley last month.

The council sent out a team of contractors to clear it up, but when they arrived at the site and realised it was British Waterways’ land, they turned back.

It’s a window on a major problem facing canals today: who should fund their upkeep.

Defra's much-publicised overspending of 2006-7, and rapid reining in of canals' funding since, has been compounded by the recession.

Not enough funds

As a result British Waterways has an annual budget deficit of £30 million for its task of maintaining canals at a "steady state", which includes routine repair and maintenance work and clearing up damage such as fly tipping, vandalism and abandoned vehicles as well as carcass removal.

It can only complete 85 per cent of this work each year, and users worry this will cause a gradual decline in the state of Britain's canals.

William Chapman, chair of campaign group Save Our Waterways (SOW), said: "There's not enough money to maintain the canals at the moment, and this will put private developers off canalside regeneration. I'm worried canals will go back to the bad old days of a few decades ago.”

Chapman points to a "Defra rash" that is spreading across the country. Areas needing repair are surrounded with orange plastic netting, but not dealt with due to a shortage of funds. The longer these sites are left unattended, he claims, the more costly the repair will be.

But funding to prevent can

als from sliding into disrepair is not forthcoming during a recession.

Local authorities

The funding gap should be filled by local councils spending more on maintaining canals, SOW thinks. "Canals contribute to local authorities' revenues through trade, tourism and higher property values.

"But British Waterways spends around £5m per year on services such as towpath maintenance, rubbish removal and waterside amenities, which councils have the resources to handle," Chapman says.

But Mike Palmer, chair of the Waterway Recovery Group, says canals don't rank highly in councils' budget priorities. "Local authorities' costs are going up in other areas, so they're unlikely to help British Waterways.”

This explains the Burnley case. A council spokesman said: "We didn't clear up the needles because we have a restricted budget, and it’s British Waterways’ land."

The government

Defra hopes its funding gap will be filled by an interdepartmental working group (IWG) of government ministers from the departments of health, education and communities. These departments benefit from pleasant, well-used canals and should pay towards their upkeep, Defra says. The strategy has so far failed to produce solid financial backing.

Should users pay?

Suggestions that canal users should pay directly for their maintenance have proved controversial. "Boaters and anglers keep the canals alive, and increased licence fees would drive them away," says David Padfield, campaign officer at IWA.

But SOW thinks users contributing is part of the solution. "Cyclists pay nothing and use the canals a lot. A national cycle permit for the waterways, even of just £10 per year, would raise a lot of money," says Chapman.

What next?

SOW and IWA will keep the pressure on the government to maintain canals despite tight budgets, hoping to maintain the success of recent regeneration projects and keep waterways an attractive prospect to developers.

"It doesn't matter where the money comes from, be it British Waterways or government departments, because it's all coming from the treasury," says Palmer.

"Every three or four years this argument crops up, that Defra should get help from the health, education and community departments because they benefit too. But it makes little difference to maintaining the canals, because it won't mean more money overall,” he says.

He thinks funding troubles will create a more efficient approach to maintaining the canals. “The really useful thing about the IWG is that it gets departments cooperating, and encourages 'joined-up' government that saves time and money.

"This, and not hard cash, is what will get canals through the recession."