Where will the money go?
HOW can Vince et al expect boaters to give CaRT £25, no strings attached? We have no idea where that money will go writes Ralph Freeman.
It could go towards leasing a new BMW for one of its many managers for all we know; or maybe it will go to the Business Division, to help compensate for the £180,000 Pillings Fiasco? After all the new charity is certainly not accountable to boaters.
Comes clean
Until CaRT 'comes clean' and describes in detail who does what and what monies are actually spent maintaining the canals themselves, there will be no 'Trust' in CaRT in my opinion. The only information we receive tends to be fabricated PR propaganda, or if that fails, just a deafening silence when the likes of Allan Richards takes up the case.
How many charities of late, I ask, have seen their income fall dramatically because the public suspects that most of the money donated is being 'siphoned off' by those running the organisations to provide executive cars, smart offices and exorbitant salaries for the higher echelons of the 'office wallahs'?
'Lean and mean' long gone
The days of charities being led by enthusiasts and run on a 'lean and mean' basis appear to be long gone? I would suggest only a small percentage of charitable donations actually end up doing 'what it says on the tin'. It's a bit like the aid we provide to the Third World. How much of that ends up where it belongs i.e providing clean water and drainage for the everyone?
Perhaps Vince Moran ought now to be having second thoughts about his sacking of valuable front-line staff (i.e lengthsmen and lock keepers)? I suggest many of those, that have been removed on his watch, had many years of experience in dealing with adverse weather conditions, and would have also been on the spot in case of problems such as we have encountered in the last few years.
Left to volunteers and office staff
Instead it seems he is left with volunteers and office staff to deal with this year's inclement weather—and how many volunteers do you see out on the towpath during the winter, especially out in the sticks? Would they be allowed out on the towpath by the 'Health & Safety' brigade in the first place I wonder?
I'm sure, years ago, Vince's predecessor would have found this winter less of a problem, despite the improvement in communications brought out by advances in mobile phone/data networks.
To sum up might I suggest CaRT needs to look closely at it's own profligate use of boaters' licence money before it sends out the begging bowl?