Canals and River Trust: 'If we lose the canals, we are homeless'

Volunteers have criticised plans to cut the grant given to the body that looks after the nation's canals.

The Canal and River Trust (C&RT), which looks after 2,000 miles of waterways in England and Wales, could see funding reduced by £300m from 2027.

A review, published on 11 July, said the trust should aim for a "reduced reliance on government funding".

The C&RT said the cuts would "turn the clock back on one of the greatest heritage regeneration stories".

The review, carried out by the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra), said the trust had "so far demonstrated value for money", but added: "We should go further in moving them into a position of reduced reliance on government funding."

The trust said canals support 80,000 jobs and contribute £1.5bn annually to the economy.

The work of the C&RT is supported by the Inland Waterways Association (IWA), whose volunteers litter pick, paint and maintain the locks and, in the winter, manage vegetation around the canal.

Geoff Wood, IWA task party joint team leader in Northampton, said volunteers "do the jobs that the Canal and River Trust would not get round to doing".

"If the funding cuts go ahead I think we'll end up probably being asked to do more," he said.

"It might be that they get better value because the money is better spent. But the worst possible case is that in maybe 10 years' time you start to see certain canals close because they cannot be maintained."

Daisy Hampshire, who has run a coffee and cake business on the Northamptonshire canal network from her boat, Nora, since March 2021, said canal users felt "sadness" at the prospect of cutbacks.

"I don't think the government really understands the impact this is going to have, not just on traders or boaters but on every person that walks up and down that towpath," she said.

"The positive impact of canals is huge.

"It's a 250-year-old system so over time it will start to fail - segments will close, those canals will be become lost. We have a personal responsibility as well."

She said the C&RT had more than 2,000 volunteers, such as the team from the Buckenham Canal Society.

"These are our homes, this is our workplace," she said.

"If we lose the canals we are homeless, we have no work. We will not give up without a fight."

A Defra spokesman said: "To date we have awarded [the trust] £550m funding and are supporting the trust with a further £590m between now and 2037 - a significant sum of money and a sign of the importance that we place on our canals.

"We have been discussing this with the charity for some time and have been offering support on how it can increase income from other sources, as per the original objective of the grant funding."

In the review, it said it would continue to provide "over £400m of ongoing funding from 2027 to 2037".

But the trust said the cut "comes at the same time as the costs of maintaining historic canals are increasing, due to the growing impact of climate change".

Chief executive, Richard Parry, said: "The decision by the government leaves a substantial funding shortfall which puts decades of restoration and recovery of these much-loved historic waterways at risk.

"Our industrial canal heritage is as vital today as it was in the past.

"It is a critical part of our national infrastructure, and its decline would impact communities across the country."

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