Evasive answers

THE Canal and River Trust (CaRT) open meeting in Birmingham in January went well according to press reports, writes Allan Richards.

However, some boaters have complained that questions raised were not answered to their satisfaction by Richard Parry and his team. Indeed, one boater claims that, despite providing questions in writing prior to the event, he has never received an answer, written or verbal.

Evasion

A document released by the Trust giving the questions asked and post-meeting updated answers appears to confirm that some have been met with evasion. Take, for example, question five ‘I want more meat on your strategic plans , especially nationally, plus some detail on how the Trust will be spending its income'.

This could have be answered by publishing CaRT's ‘Operating Plan 2013-16' on its website and the post-meeting document providing a link so that all could easily access the same information.

So simple!

Vegetables

However, the person asking for ‘more meat' was given the ‘vegetarian option'!

Instead of providing CaRT's latest three year national Operating Plan, a link to a draft plan for one of 13 Waterways Partnership was given with a vague assurance that the Trust was working steadily towards making more information public.

CaRT's response provided absolutely no recognition that the person was asking for information on national plans and particularly, its financial plans which could easily be made available.

The sordid fact is that the Trust no longer wants the public to see its national plans!

If you have difficulty in understanding this read on.

Operating Plan

British Waterways had for many years a rolling three year corporate plan which would be updated on a yearly basis. With the switch to CaRT the word ‘corporate' was dropped in favour of ‘operating'. The Trust's initial three year operating plan for 2012-2015 was published on its website in a customer friendly format by order of its Trustees.

However, whilst happy to publish its 2012-2015 plan, it seems that the Trust is very reluctant to publish its successor updated for 2013-2016 and a copy has had to be obtained using the Freedom of Information Act.

As will be seen from the picture the 2013-2016 plan is marked ‘Not for Publication' and ‘Strictly Confidential'.

Furthermore, a copy of the plan eventually provided has large amounts of text blacked out because CaRT wishes to withhold the information. The reason it gives for censoring its plan is simply that it is not legally obliged to provide all of the information contained in it.

Based on the above, would it be true to say that the Trust is working towards providing less information about its plans rather than more?

Boating ********

Those who like the comedy quiz show ‘Have I Got News for You?' will immediately be drawn to section six of the plans contents page which reads ‘Boating ********' because CaRT have seen fit to black out the word or words following ‘boating'.

It is just like the end part of that quiz where panellists are presented with headlines from obscure publications with some words blacked out and invited to guess the headline.

(It's much easier with the section titles either side of ‘Boating ********' as the Trust have obliterated these completely so you can choose a ‘headline' without restriction.)

And again

If you are having trouble guessing what follows ‘Boating' then perhaps turning to the actual section on page 15 will help. Sorry you are out of luck! Page 15 reads ‘Boating ********' as well.

Turning to Page 16, however, does give a clue. In the mass of blacked out text are two sections one of which tells us that licence fees will be pegged to inflation for a couple of years (already announced). The other admits that revenue from angling will drop in real terms because an Angling Development Manager is being appointed.

Angling? Could it be that the section six title reads ‘Boating and Angling'?

Surely not!

Blacked out

At least the section on boating does give information relevant to boaters, albeit already announced. Cart's plans in other areas seem particularly sparse as the six pages following those on ‘Boating ********' are seen in the photo below.

So there you have it! A question was asked at the open meeting in Birmingham which could have been answered by providing a copy of CaRT's current (national) operating plan. However, the evasive response simply failed to acknowledge the implicit request because CaRT does not want to publish its plan. This, despite its Trustees saying that they wanted the previous plan published.

Confidential

Whilst mooring within the West Midland Region, I was unable to attend the Open Meeting in Birmingham. However, based on the concerns being expressed about evasive answers at that meeting, I decided to attend the Nottingham meeting and tackle the matter using answer five of CaRT's 23 documented answers from Birmingham as an example of how the Trust is evasive in responding to questions.

With regard to the issue of being open in relation to its plans at a national level, the Trust's Chief Executive, Richard Parry, claimed that plans were constantly changing but cited as example of openness information recently provided to national user groups.

Sadly, one of those groups, NABO, had already reported on the matter. ‘Richard Parry gave a set-the-scene talk of likely income and expenditure budgeted over the next three years. Without going into specifics which was agreed should be kept confidential........'.

Confidential? Oh dear!

Will you fully publish, Richard?

Bearing in mind that the trustees have insisted that a previous operating plan be published, it was decided to ask Richard Parry a question that could be answered with a direct ‘yes' or ‘no'.

Asked, very directly if he would fully publish CaRT's Operating Plan 2013-2016, Richard Parry replied that the Trust would publish ‘something'.

Another evasive answer, Richard?

[CaRT's three year operating plan for 2012-2015, ordered to be published by its Trustees, can be found on its website at: HERE

CaRT's ‘blacked out' 38 page three year plan for 2013-2016, eventually provided under the Freedom of Information Act, can be found on the whatdotheyknow.com website at: HERE