£85m is not enough

THE Canal & River Trust (CaRT) has announced that it will be spending just £85m on maintaining its waterways this year (2014/15), writes Allan Richards.

However based on its own figures it needs to spend £134m simply to stop year on year deterioration.

 

£105m or £130m

At a Press briefing some months ago, three directors were quizzed on the disparity between a figure given for ‘steady state' at the meeting, £105m, and the figure given by fourth director (not present) which was considerably higher at £130m (£105m or £130m?).

The directors were unable to provide an explanation for the massive £25m difference.

Steady state

‘Steady state' defines the amount that needs to be spent on the waterways each year to prevent year on year deterioration. Spend above steady state and the general condition of the waterways improves. Spend below and the general condition of the waterways gets worse and the maintenance backlog increases.

Perhaps it is little wonder that the Trust is failing to provide information on its serial asset and infrastructure failures. Failures which, incidentally, its Trustees were assured were a rare occurrence.

.... and perhaps it is little wonder that the Trust refuses to provide a proper estimate for its maintenance backlog. This was given by British Waterways as being £200m many years ago and may now be approaching £400m.

Still unanswered

The Trust still appears to be unable to explain why its Operations Director, Vince Moran, used a figure some £25m less than that given by its legal director, Nigel Johnson. However, all the evidence suggests that Mr Johnson used the correct figure and that the Trust is attempting to hide a £50m funding gap.

Mr Johnson never commented on the matter. The Press meeting was on a Friday and the following Monday it was announced that the ‘legal director' was to leave a full year before his normal retirement date.

Steady State increase

‘Steady state' is not static. The cost of maintaining our waterways increases over time despite economies and efficiencies claimed. The Trustees currently use a figure of 3% which is well below some previous estimates. Based on this, the steady state figure will be in the region of £134m for 2014/15.

As such, the £85m that CaRT says it will spend on the waterways this year should not be considered in isolation. Projected spend needs to be considered in the context of the £134m ‘Steady state' figure.

Long term future

With the Trust now spending less than two thirds the amount needed on its waterways, one has to ask what is its long term future?

.... and what happens when government funding ends?