Partnerships draining CaRT finances
THE Canal & River Trust (CaRT) Waterways Partnerships are draining CaRT resources and will fail to become self sufficient by the end of 2014 as promised, writes Allan Richards.
Indeed, the partnerships, some of which are almost three years old, will continue to drain the meagre financial resources of the Trust for the foreseeable future.
APPG Waterways report
In April 2013, the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Waterways produced a report following an enquiry into Waterway Partnerships. It found a lack of clarity regarding the purpose of these Partnerships. Thus the reports first recommendation was 'To ensure that Waterway Partnerships have clarity of role and stakeholders are clear of the purpose of the Waterway Partnerships in order to maximise their effectiveness and utility'.
Unfortunately, APPG Waterways did not make it clear if they expected the Trust or Partnerships (or both) to carry out this recommendation. Suffice to say the role of Waterways Partnerships is no clearer now than it was over a year ago.
.... and that's about as clear as the silt at the bottom of many of our Waterways!Funding
It was made very clear in the 2013 report that funding was a crucial aspect of Waterways Partnerships. APPG were told that it was expected the Partnerships would be self-funded and a source of revenue for the Trust.
Indeed, ex-CEO, Robin Evans, suggested that Partnership members might bring in £40,000 a year each. To save you reaching for your calculators that's more than £5 million a year!
Wanted money from marinas
However, this was not a view shared for all Partnerships with some suggesting that CaRT should simply give them money to spend on local projects. One Partnership chairman even thought that CaRT should give him the proceeds from marinas in his region!
So, on the crucial issue of funding alone, one can understand the lack of clarity of the role of waterway partnerships.
Self-funded by end of 2014
The APPG did not quite share the £5m a year contribution from Waterways partnerships in the shorter term. The report says the APPG ‘.... believes it is premature to expect Waterway Partnerships to be achieving these figures; they should still aim to be self-funded by the end of the 2014'.
However, in the financial year 2013/14, no progress was made towards making the Waterways Partnerships being self-funding. CaRT's annual report shows that the cost of governance, of which Waterways Partnerships form the bulk, was £1.4m.
No projected income
Worse still, CaRT's plans show it actually giving £25,000 last year (£325,000 in total) to Waterways Partnerships for unspecified projects, but show no projected income during that year or for the future. At face value, CaRT have simply accepted that the Waterways Partnerships will not be financially self sufficient within the next few years much less by the end of 2014.
It's really a pity that they ‘forgot' to tell APPG about this. APPG have issued another report within the last few days which says the following:
Recommendation: To ensure that Partnerships have clarity of their financial role and that revenue from the Partnerships beyond their operating costs are used within that Partnership's region.
Recommendation: Waterway Partnerships should approach LEPs, LAs, the business community and other bodies to develop joint bids for funding and secure support for the Waterway Partnerships and its projects.
Recommendation: Waterway Partnerships should continue to develop relationships with LAs, LEPs and the local business community with an aim to be self-funded in all their activities by the end of 2014.
Failed!
It would appear that Waterways Partnerships are failing to deliver because they are failing to generate sufficient income to cover costs much less financially contribute to the waterways.
.... and CaRT is attempting to cover up that failure.