Dear friends

Despite the fact that  in order to maintain a steady state of maintenance, BW should be spending £30 million per year more than it does, DEFRA has cut its 2010/2011 budget by a further £4.6 million.

At the beginning of the year, Robin Evans, British Waterways Chief Executive, said "Recent investment by British Waterways means that the network is now in better shape than at any time in decades."

After a summer’s cruising, we want to know if you agree, so based on your boating  this year, we invite you to complete the one or both of two waterways condition surveys. Each should take about 10-15 minutes to complete. John Slee has kindly put the surveys together using the same web based tool that we used for the cost survey earlier in the year. The response to this was useful but not big enough to be statistically meaningful. Please do take part in this. It will only have credibility with the powers that be if we get hundreds of responses, and that means you too.

If you have boated on BW waters, click on this link: http://www.surveymk.com/NABObw09  or paste it into your Web Browser. You will be asked to enter a password, which is: Navigation09 (without a space before zero nine). If you have boated on non-BW waters, we would be grateful if you would complete the NABO Other Agencies Waterways Condition survey, to create a comparison. Click on this link: http://www.surveymk.com/NABOoa09, or paste it into your Web Browser. You will be asked to enter a password, which is: Navigation09 (without a space before zero nine).

The closing date for completion of the Surveys is Saturday 26th September 2009. Please complete both surveys if you have boated on both BW and other agencies’ waterways in 2009. If, for any reason, you cannot complete a survey in one sitting, you can return to complete it later, as long as it is before the deadline.

In a spirit of concerned cooperation, this invitation will also be sent to RBOA (Residential Boat Owners Association), TBA (The Boating Association) and SOW (Save Our Waterways) for them to consider whether to send it on to their members. An analysis of the results of the Survey(s) will be posted on the NABO website http://nabo.org.uk, published in NABO News and made available to those other organisations that take part. After analysing the survey, NABO will report our findings to BW and other waterways agencies and DEFRA.

Thank you for your help in recording your experiences and expressing your opinions. It will help us press for proper funding for the waterways.

David Fletcher

Chairman