Our survey said!

The Canal and River Trust has a bewildering number of people who are in one way or another tied into organising the future and direction of the trust. For each of the trust’s eleven waterway areas there is a Waterways Partnership allegedly drawn from local communities. In reality chosen by the chairman of the partnership. The role of Waterways Partnerships is completely advisory as are the roles of various other groups involved in the governance of CaRT. Plus a couple more extra partnerships thrown in for good luck. 

With around a dozen or more people on each partnership. Each individual is encouraged to have a view and therefore holds a different agenda.

The cost to us of all these 'incidental top level volunteers' getting involved in the governance was £662,000 last year or about £4243.58 each! The partnerships were supposed to be self funding, and any surplus generated was supposed to go into CaRT's coffers. At the moment CaRT is putting money into the partnerships. That is an ongoing situation and I fear it is not going to change any time soon. 

In reality the partnerships seems to have all the hall marks of a job creation scheme. It does appear on first glance that some are setting up their own little fiefdom and that nepotism is still alive and well.

As for the 'find-a-friend' chuggers, I have fond memories of being accosted by a chugger in Birmingham. Just after the 'grand opening of CaRT' in Gas Street. The company of chuggers  that CaRT employed then promptly went bust after a few short months. The two 'friends' figures I have  seen touted around are 4k and 5k. Both figures woefully short of the target set for the first year.

But why don't CaRT set a low figure and then have something to celebrate rather than a figure they can't reach and then have to defend the situation. Unless of course, it was a low figure that they set and then completely missed that by a country mile? Somehow a charity asking the public for donations with 'canal' in their name is not as catchy as one like 'British Waterways Trust' would have been. Plus it would have saved a fortune on the rolling out the new name and a logo encapsulating the posture of an angry swan.

So I drew together my own partnership team. I posed them the question of what would be the best way forward for CaRT. Their collective answer - 'start again' but what do they know!

How many of the special people making up our partnership team do you know? Click the image below for the names!