BMF speaks at DEFRA event to welcome launch of new waterways charity

We were delighted that the British Marine Federation was one of only two organisations invited by Government to speak at the launch of the consultation for the new waterways charity yesterday, with my colleague Brian Clark standing alongside the Waterways Minister and the Chairman of British Waterways.  This underlines the important role we play in representing the sector and the trust the Government has in us to portray the views of our members.

The BMF represents the entire UK leisure and small commercial marine industry, a sector comprised of around 4,200 businesses, with a turnover of nearly £3 billion and 32,500 employees.  Our inland marinas/hire generates £134 million and employ 2249 people.  In addition, it is estimated that for every employee directly engaged on the inland marina sector, an additional 10 jobs are associated from associated services.

Unlike many other industries, our inland businesses are wholly dependent on a fully operational waterways.  If there is no waterway, there is no industry.

It is for the reason that the future of our navigable rivers and canals are so important to our membership and why we support the concept of British Waterways transforming into a civil society organisation. 

The marinas, boat builders, hire fleets, brokerage and other service related activities that can be found out navigable rivers and canals believe that the move to the new waterways charity will put our waterways on a sustainable footing an ensure that the vital service and maintenance responsibilities are retained for years to come. 

It is important the new waterways charity “gets it right” from the start and so the delayed inclusion of the Environment Agency navigations until 2015/16 is accepted.  We however are still fully supportive of a single national navigation authority and will support the gradual harmonisation of these navigations during the formative years before the review in 2014.

We look forward to fully engaging in the consultation process over the coming weeks and will be coordinating the industry response on behalf of waterside businesses to ensure that issues important to industry and tourism, including maintaining navigation, levels of service and the industry’s role in governance are fully considered.

We plan to organise a meeting for the industry to consider all the issues in the consultation and will let members know details in due course; in the meantime we welcome views from members on the consultation so please do post your comments below.

Howard Pridding

Executive Director