I took the liberty of sending Adrian's comments about John Edmunds to John himself. Adrian's comments are reproduced below, and below that is John's response to them which he is happy to have posted here. I will leave it to you all to determine whether you feel Adrian accurately reflected Johns views on this matter.
ADRIAN'S COMMENT 2008/10/9 Adrian Stott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > It was made abundantly clear that the current £30 million/year gap > between what BW needs to spend to keep the waterways in a steady state > of repair, and the revenue it now has, is *not* going to be made up by > added government grant. Boaters were advised bluntly by John Edmunds > (IWAC) not to waste any more time on that idea. > JOHN'S REPLY My argument was the opposite of the report to you. It went like this: - The most important game in town is the funding issue. Everything else is minor compared to the funding gap. - Because of the pressure on government spending and competition for funds we have to find a more convincing approach than we have used in the past. - Old style campaigning might prevent further cuts but it will not deliver the big increases in funds (say an extra £50million a year) that are needed. - In particular the boaters on their own will not do it: "60 or 100,000 boaters can make a lot of noise but they will not, on their own, persuade the Treasury to part up with the extra money". The new approach should have three elements: *Better facts *- we need to be able to demonstrate, and not just assert, that the waterways deliver extensive and valuable benefits for many different groups. That is why IWAC has pressed Defra to commission the research that will put robust values on all the benefits. The good news is that the researchers were chosen last week and the project has started. *Better ideas *- at present the government funding is based not on needs and opportunities but on how much the navigation authorities got last year. We need to develop funding principles for a long term plan. IWAC will be producing a report at the end of next year showing what the options are. At present we are looking at what other countries do to see if they have any good ideas that we can use. *A grand coalition of support *- BW, and most important the boating organisations themselves, need to reach out to win the support of groups that we have sometimes fought with in the past (like other leisure groups, environmentalists, heritage organisations and even business groups who will develop sympathetically). We need a grand coalition of support for the waterways. I summed up by saying: "If we build a campaign using this new approach we stand a good chance of success: if we continue in the old ways, all we are doing is postponing the defeat." Sorry to go on at such length but if that is an argument for giving up, I am a banana. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
