Struggling for a replacement

THE third birthday of Canal & River Trust (CaRT) came and went on 2nd July 2015 with little comment except from Victor (Victor Swift tells a tale: Ner a murmur ...) writes Allan Richards.

The self congratulation of previous years has been remarkably absent with the Trust confining itself to regurgitating an Ian McMillan poem penned for its launch in 2012.

Two gone

Perhaps of more interest than Mr McMillan's poem is that the following two old guard directors have gone but CaRT's website has not been updated.

Of Philip Ridal, Finance Director, we are told:

‘Philip is responsible for financial control, forecasting & planning, management information, tax & accounting, insurance, ICT, shared service centre, procurement, green plan and BWML.

Unfortunately, in October Philip announced his plans to retire at the end of June 2015 on his 62nd birthday. In order to achieve a smooth handover, the process to find Philip's successor is underway so that the appointee can work alongside Philip for a period before his departure.'

Rather than Mr Ridal's retirement plans, CaRT might like to celebrate its third anniversary by updating its website to reflect that Sandra Kelly is its new finance director.

Simon Salem

... and then we have Simon Salem, Marketing and Fundraising Director. Here is what CaRT's website says about him:

‘Simon is responsible for marketing, fundraising, enterprise, Comms (external & internal), customer services, boating policy, licence enforcement, volunteering, education & interpretation and angling & fisheries.

After more than 26 years' service to the waterways Simon Salem has decided to retire in June 2015. Simon joined British Waterways as marketing development manager in 1988, having previously worked at London Underground, and rose to become a director. He played a significant role in helping to create, launch and establish the Canal & River Trust and set up its fundraising and volunteering teams.'

Of course, regular narrowboatworld readers will know that Simon lost his customer services, boating policy and licence enforcement responsibilities a year ago with Ian Lane (ex West Midlands Waterways Manager) taking a six month interim appointment as Head of Customer Services reporting directly to the chief executive, Richard Parry.

Then after a short gap, Ian Rogers (pictured) was appointed from outside as the new £100k pa Customer Services Manager.

.... and almost nothing has been heard from Mr Rogers since!

Marketing, Communications and Fundraising

Regular readers will also be aware, that CaRT advertised for a Head of Marketing, Communications and Fundraising at £100k p.a. to replace Simon. Then it had a change of mind and decided the appointment would be at director level attracting a salary of £125K.

But what readers will not know is that no Director of Marketing, Communications and Fundraising was ever appointed. The Trust's third anniversary was marked by advertising the position again!

Will the Trust ever appoint a Director of Marketing, Communications and Fundraising?