British Waterways has just posted a press release on its website:-
http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/newsroom/all-press-releases/display/id/2414
"British Waterways (BW) is today announcing to staff, customers and stakeholders the results of a major strategic review which it believes will form the basis for the continued renaissance and long-term sustainability of the 2,200 miles of canals and rivers in its care.
The key proposals are to: increase efficiencies; open up new funding and partnership opportunities; create closer links with local communities and; start a gradual move over the next decade towards the waterways achieving a ‘third sector’ trust or charitable status.
As a first step, BW is proposing an internal restructure of its operations in England and Wales with the creation of 11 smaller, ‘hands-on’ waterway units, the removal of a layer of management and, subject to consultation with staff and trade unions, approximately 100 redundancies from office staff. Together with other planned changes these proposals would enable approximately £10m per annum to be redirected to waterways maintenance.
The newly established 11 waterway units in England and Wales will focus solely on delivering BW’s core maintenance programme to ensure high levels of efficiency and customer service. Whilst the units will be more evenly balanced in terms of waterway length, number of waterway structures and customer base, the exact boundaries between each will be the subject of a customer consultation. Certain functions currently carried out in existing waterways units, such as managing moorings, developing partnerships and carrying out major engineering projects, will be undertaken by specialist teams.
In the revised structure, additional focus will be put on working with volunteers and local communities, whilst the creation of a new regeneration directorate will build on the ability of the waterways to kickstart regeneration and contribute to social inclusion. The directorate’s aim will be to develop new relationships with community stakeholders and funding bodies at both a local and national level"
For PDF of map – http://tinyurl.com/crvwun