Wales fails
THE Canal & River Trust (CaRT) West Midlands Waterways Partnership is not the only one failing (Partnership wants 13 new members), writes Allan Richards.
Two of the three Welsh Partnerships have either failed or are in serious trouble.Welsh Partnerships
Welsh Waterway Partnerships are mapped onto both waterways regional boundaries and country boundaries. We have the waterways region based North Wales and Borders Partnership and the South Wales and Severn Partnership. However, with both these partnerships straddling the border between England and Wales, a third partnership, the All Wales Waterways Partnership, has been created.
This, according to CaRT, 'Champions the current value and future potential of the waterways of Wales and makes sure what we do is aligned with the long term needs of Wales, its businesses and communities'. The All Wales Partnership also, supposedly, supports the work of the other two partnerships in Wales.
South Wales and Severn
South Wales and Severn Waterways Partnership at least looks fairly active, holding meetings and publishing notes of those meeting. Of course, as with all other partnerships, it makes no mention of the need to be self funding by the end of 2014 or making a positive financial contribution to the trust thereafter.
Also, the partnership appears to have achieved very little in its first three years of operation. This is to a large extent confirmed by the notes of its last meeting held in September which state 'The partnership would like to thank JH [Jack Hegarty, outgoing chairman] for the tremendous effort he has made in getting SW&S up and running'.
Three years
Three years to get a partnership up and running?
Perhaps the best thing that can be said is that, after three years, the partnership does now finally have a three year plan and a new chairman, David Hagg, who will start next month.
However, one is left wondering if, in three years time, this partnership will be congratulating its new chair for the tremendous effort he has made in taking over from his predecessor!
North Wales and Borders
Whilst South Wales and Severn Waterway Partnership is actually meeting and publishing notes of meetings, the same can not be said for North Wales and Borders. The last published notes, which confirm the partnership is active and meeting, were published on 22nd May 2014. Five months on, and despite CaRT's meeting calendar indicating four scheduled meetings, no minutes or notes have been forthcoming.
Is this partnership still active? If so why have no minutes or notes of meetings been published?
Again, the best that can be said is that this partnership will have a new chairman, Brenda Harvey, starting next month.
Visitor numbers
As an aside, several articles have been published in narrowboatworld recently querying volunteer numbers, especially Volunteer Lock Keepers. The suggestion is that numbers may have gone down rather than up as claimed.
The last meeting notes (ie. May 2014) of the North Wales and Borders Waterway Partnership give a bar chart of local figures for the last two financial years. In a nutshell, the region achieved over 3,000 volunteer days in 2012/13 and was set a target of just under 4,000 for 2013/14. The minutes record that the region achieved just over 2,000 volunteer days, some 60% down on target and significantly down on the previous year.
It is not known if this disappointing result had any bearing on the disappearance of the partnership.
No Wales Partnership
Then we have the All Wales Partnership which, perhaps, should better be called the 'No Wales Partnership'. Although, CaRT's website gives the chairman as Dr Mark Lang and CV's of seven other members, it would seem that the partnership quietly folded over a year ago. Whilst CaRT's meetings calendar shows that the All Wales Partnership will hold its Annual Public Meeting on 17th December, it is known that this meeting has now been cancelled.
CaRT's website directs anyone wishing to contact the All Wales Partnership to instead contact Andrew Stumpf its ‘Head of Wales'.
Oh dear!