Richard at Leicester

THIS time Richard Parry, Chief Executive of Canal & River Trust is answering questions at a lively Open Meeting at Leicester, which will be the last in the series.

Canals are deteriorating

1. I've lived on the water for 20 years. A lot of boaters believe these meetings are just PR to smooth over the waters. The true reason that waterways are in a state is due to mismanagement rather than a lack of money. If there's a lack of money then it should not be going into arts and cycling, it should be going into improving things for boaters. The canals are deteriorating.

Some areas have real problems with cyclists, if you get hit by one you'll get hurt or killed and you shouldn't be putting money into creating racetracks for cyclists.

Also on the subject of continuous cruisers—if you have work or schools you can't continuously cruise—why is that question not asked when you apply for a licence?

I'm sorry but I don't agree on your point that the waterways are deteriorating. More people tell me it's better than not, genuinely. We have a very thorough inspection regime and the information we get from that tells us that, on average, assets are in better condition now than they were five or ten years ago. Of course that's not always the measure that tells you how easy it is to use, but it certainly tells us a lot about the safety and underlying state of the network. That's where a lot of our money is spent, on the things you depend upon but that don't contribute to your experience of the canal and that you can't see. I'm not saying things are perfect, but I don't agree that the waterways are deteriorating.

On the issue of cycling we've just concluded a consultation into towpath use and we've had over 2000 responses. The idea of a permit often gets raised but I don't support that suggestion as it's almost impossible to enforce. We are trying to educate people, but we should also be better on signage. We need to be very clear cyclists on respecting other users and make clear that the slowest within the hierarchy of users has priority.

We very rarely spend our money on improving towpaths, as I said earlier our priority has to be on ensuring the safety and integrity of the waterways. Where towpath improvements do take place they are almost always through working with partners and third party funding.

We also believe that these improvements benefit everyone and that they're not just for cyclists. Very often while the works are taking place we can include improvements to wash walls which will benefit boaters. The new surfaces will also improve access for all users, especially people in wheelchairs and those with buggies. We're clear though that we need to push for surfaces that don't promote head-down speed and also consider other measures where appropriate.

Before we go on to mooring and boat movement issues, any more views on towpaths and cycling?

Rippled path surface

2. We need a rippled path surface which would help us to hear cyclists as they approached. Tarmac is too fast and it's also slippery in frost which makes it dangerous for cyclists themselves.

We don't put smooth tarmac down where we have a choice over it. We've recently secured funds to work on towpaths in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and on the Caldon Canal and those surfaces are not black tarmac. There are places where we don't own the towpath and local authorities have decided on a hard surface, but we prefer a broken, textured surface and, where we can, we make that point very clearly.

3. It's not just cyclists, I live at Zouch and was nearly mowed down by two motocross bikes running riot on the towpath. The problem is that you have no-one on the ground, no lock keepers or lengthsmen to stop people.

That behaviour is unlawful, we should be clear about that, and it should be reported to the Police.

We do put our people on the ground and we're recruiting volunteers across the country - we have over 400 volunteer lock keepers which we didn't have three-four years and we're looking at towpath rangers in London and elsewhere—paid lengthsmen aren't affordable now. We have to look at a different model as the economics don't support what was done 100 years ago; no organisation could justify the cost. However, I agree that we need to try to be more visible, and volunteers are helping with that. We need also local communities to help and there are many places where residents are taking the initiative, adopting their local canal and helping to stop people from spoiling it through litter, fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour. It's through that cooperation that we can gradually make the system a better place to be. Anti-social behaviour is a wider social problem and we have a huge network running through major urban, formerly industrial areas, so it's not surprising that we get our share of this problem too. There will always be small numbers of people who will behave badly but if we all work together then I genuinely think we can make our waterways a better place.

On an hiding to nothing

4. An official in a uniform has more weight, at the moment we're on a hiding to nothing.

I genuinely believe that volunteering is an opportunity for people to make a difference, and of course they will be in uniform. We have people working with us from a range of different backgrounds. We're doing more with young people, actively creating youth social activities which helps with engagement and can help to reduce anti-social behaviour. I don't share the scepticism, I think we all can gradually make the waterways a better place.

5. My son is a cyclist in London and I'd rather he cycled on the towpath than the road. We have to find a way of sharing our spaces. That's why it comes back to education and people slowing down.

Thank you, I agree, we've done a lot in London on this, working with TFL, and we have had some success but there's more to do. On the wider towpath issue I visited a project in central London last week where a local school has got involved with their local canal, helping to plant a community garden and just making the towpath a nicer place to be, and this is being respected by everyone, cyclists included. It's a great story of the difference that people can make.

It will take time but things will only get better if we try and tackle these issues through education and engagement because they won't go away otherwise.