Welching on an apology

VAUGHAN Welch, the rogue Inland Waterways Association trustee and West Midlands Chairman is to keep his position within the organisation, writes Allan Richards.

He will also retain his membership of the Canal & River Trust council, as a boaters representative, together with his position as a member of the West Midands Waterways Partnership.

Extreme views

The extreme views of Vaughan Welch have been well documented in various narrowboatworld articles including IWA Disowns Welch (25/1/2013). This is the man who believes that only 180 of approximately 4500 continuous cruisers actually comply with the requirements of the British Waterways 1995 Act and CaRT's guidance. He also encourages IWA members to spy on boaters and report those they believe are non compliant.

His views have caused dismay amongst boaters and IWA members alike, and have led to calls that he should either resign or be removed from the various offices that he holds.

Navigation

Writing in the Winter 2012 edition of Navigation, the IWA West Midlands Region's quarterly publication, Vaughan Welch attempts to blame his outrageous views on his wife's recent illness, dismissing them as causing some 'unintended controversy' due to being 'badly worded in places'.

Hardly the apology that boaters were led to believe might be made!

....and hardly an apology that they can read! Unlike previous editions of Navigation, the latest has not been published online.

Not encouraged to Spy

His article goes on to say '....IWA does not, and never has, encouraged boaters to photograph or spy on other boaters'.

This completely contradicts his previous article which says 'I would encourage you to report, with substantiating evidence if you have it, to CRT all those that are obviously bending the rules to the determent [detriment?] of other boaters'.

Perhaps that was what he meant about being badly worded!

Now yearly

However, it appears that IWA may have taken a small step to gag him by making Navigation a yearly publication instead of quarterly, thus depriving him of of his major platform. It has also been made clear that he will not be writing in any branch magazines in the near future.

For many, it will not be enough that his brand of extremism is allowed to continue in either IWA or CaRT.