Welcome

It was good that members could meet up in person at the AGM in Lichfi eld and see the very impressive progress made by the Lichfi eld & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust. The focus of the AGM was very much about looking forward and the continuing importance of IWA in the 21st century.

I know some suggest that IWA has lost its campaigning roots and that it no longer has a purpose. Our ‘Only IWA’ message, which is well documented elsewhere in the magazine, clearly demonstrates that this is not the case. How you campaign and infl uence has changed. The public view today is that waterways are a valuable public resource that can promote and develop many good things. The problem is that they are not adequately funded and this reduces their abili to deliver all the available benefi ts and IWA needs to make this widely known.

Every boater will have a view on the current state of the waterways and, in general, I think it will be that things have got worse. If proper funding for the future is not secured I fear there is a real danger of waterways being lost again. For me, it would be totally unacceptable, and u erly ridiculous for the government to allow this to happen. If IWA’s funding campaign doesn’t succeed and the threat of long-term closures even starts to become apparent, then IWA will be at the fore ont of a very di erent campaign to prevent this.

Our Waterways for Today report, launched at the AGM, has been produced to help address this and other issues. I hope you have already had the opportuni to read it. If not, please do as it is available on the website.

Copies of the report have been widely distributed to national and local politicians but every member can help reinforce the message by writing to their MP and their local councillors, providing the website link and pointing out the benefi ts. Our members are IWA and the more we work together the stronger we are, so please do take the opportuni to contact politicians and other local people of infl uence to spread the message about the incredible value and benefi ts of our inland waterways.

IWA wants every navigation authori adequately funded. The discussions with the government on Canal & River Trust funding are particularly important simply because of the number of waterways under CRT’s control. It appears that the original plan to agree on funding in 2022 for the period a er 2027 has been pushed into the long grass so nothing meaningful will happen soon. My view is that it wasn’t crucial that funding was agreed now and, even if it had been, a future government could easily have changed the deal before it was implemented. The delay gives us a major opportuni to spread the messages om Waterways for Today and your help in achieving this will be greatly appreciated. The message needs to spread far and wide as quickly as possible. IWA has a real job to do and we need everyone’s help.

Les Etheridge