The date for a meeting between the supporting members of The Boaters' Manifesto and CaRT has been suggested.
To Peter Underwood.
Tuesday Dec 20th is the suggested day – does that suit you and your
group?
Trustees taking parts would be myself, John Bridgeman and Jane
Cotton. I set out below some background information in case it helps. The words in black
iare taken from the official May 2011 announcement; those in red words are my own
additions.
John Bridgeman CBE
John is British Waterways’ vice
chairman, chair of the Fair Trading Committee and the Wales Advisory Group and a
pension trustee. He is a former director general of Fair Trading, member of the
Monopolies and Mergers Commission and CEO of British Alcan Aluminium plc. He is
also regulatory director of the British Horseracing Authority, chairman of the
Audit and Standards Committee for Warwickshire County Council, complaints
commissioner for the Direct Marketing Authority and a longstanding trustee of
three Oxfordshire charities. Lives near Banbury and so knows the Oxford canal,
among others, and keen on the Welsh canals.
Jane Cotton
Jane has
been human resources director and a deputy chief executive of Oxfam, one of the
UK’s largest and most successful charities, for the past 11 years. Prior to this
she worked in Departments of Transport and Environment in both policy and human
resources roles. In the 1990s Jane was resources director of the Charity
Commission and human resources director of Department of Environment, Transport
and the Regions. She brings particular expertise in organisational development
and change management; also in volunteering, fundraising and charity governance.
Lives near Princes Risborough, Bucks. Obviously, knows a lot about running
charities and pay strategy; she will chair the Remuneration Committee of
CRT.
John Dodwell
John is a chartered accountant who moved into
corporate finance and corporate law. He is a former finance director or chair of
several property companies (including setting up joint ventures), a former
charity trustee (including dealing with investments) and has been a member since
1961 of The Inland Waterways Association, of which he was General Secretary
1970-73. He was chair of the Commercial Boat Operators Association. He will
relinquish membership of the Inland Waterways Advisory Council and of the
British Waterways Advisory Forum on becoming a trustee for the new waterways
charity. Having sailed dinghies, fished and canoed on the Thames and elsewhere
in his youth, he went onto hire cruisers over most of the network, enjoying the
waterways’ built and natural environment. He now owns an historic narrow boat;
it’s an old BCN tug which draws 3 ft over its 51 ft length.
Let me know
if you’d like to know more.
Best wishes
John
Tuesday Dec 20th is the suggested day – does that suit you and your
group?
Trustees taking parts would be myself, John Bridgeman and Jane
Cotton. I set out below some background information in case it helps. The words in black
iare taken from the official May 2011 announcement; those in red words are my own
additions.
John Bridgeman CBE
John is British Waterways’ vice
chairman, chair of the Fair Trading Committee and the Wales Advisory Group and a
pension trustee. He is a former director general of Fair Trading, member of the
Monopolies and Mergers Commission and CEO of British Alcan Aluminium plc. He is
also regulatory director of the British Horseracing Authority, chairman of the
Audit and Standards Committee for Warwickshire County Council, complaints
commissioner for the Direct Marketing Authority and a longstanding trustee of
three Oxfordshire charities. Lives near Banbury and so knows the Oxford canal,
among others, and keen on the Welsh canals.
Jane Cotton
Jane has
been human resources director and a deputy chief executive of Oxfam, one of the
UK’s largest and most successful charities, for the past 11 years. Prior to this
she worked in Departments of Transport and Environment in both policy and human
resources roles. In the 1990s Jane was resources director of the Charity
Commission and human resources director of Department of Environment, Transport
and the Regions. She brings particular expertise in organisational development
and change management; also in volunteering, fundraising and charity governance.
Lives near Princes Risborough, Bucks. Obviously, knows a lot about running
charities and pay strategy; she will chair the Remuneration Committee of
CRT.
John Dodwell
John is a chartered accountant who moved into
corporate finance and corporate law. He is a former finance director or chair of
several property companies (including setting up joint ventures), a former
charity trustee (including dealing with investments) and has been a member since
1961 of The Inland Waterways Association, of which he was General Secretary
1970-73. He was chair of the Commercial Boat Operators Association. He will
relinquish membership of the Inland Waterways Advisory Council and of the
British Waterways Advisory Forum on becoming a trustee for the new waterways
charity. Having sailed dinghies, fished and canoed on the Thames and elsewhere
in his youth, he went onto hire cruisers over most of the network, enjoying the
waterways’ built and natural environment. He now owns an historic narrow boat;
it’s an old BCN tug which draws 3 ft over its 51 ft length.
Let me know
if you’d like to know more.
Best wishes
John
John Dodwell, one of the transition trustees comments on the Boaters' Manifesto
An introduction by Peter Underwood (Cordinator and compiler of The Boaters' Manifesto)
One of the eight transition trustees, John Dodwell has written a commentary on the first draft of the
Boaters’ Manifesto defending many of the actions the manifesto complains about.
John seems to feel that the existence of the manifesto
means that boaters support the Canal and River Trust and the only point I would
make is that most serious boaters feel the charity has been foisted on them by a
government that is refusing to take financial responsibility for a great
national asset. We are trying to mitigate what we fear will be a disaster.
It is also worth noting that his response has already drawn criticism from those
who feel he should be more aware of the funding gap and from those who feel his
defence of retaining the current BW directors is misguided.
Here is what John Dodwell said...
Your draft Boaters’ Manifesto interests me as I am one
of the eight Canal & River Trust trustees. I also have a longstanding
interest in the waterways (e.g. IWA General Secretary in the 70s) and 10 years
ago finally bought a boat – a 51ft long 3 ft draft BCN historic tug. I’m not the
only boat owning trustee – so is Lynne Berry (recently retired from running the
WRVS – 65,000 volunteers).
I agree with you that waterways need boats as
much as boats need waterways. The role of boat owners and others in saving the
waterways is undisputed. I am sure the Trustees will want to read the final
version of the Manifesto but I thought it might help if I made a few comments so
the Manifesto can’t be faulted on its facts.
And as I want to do justice to your draft, I want to respond in detail.
THE COUNCIL
The Trust’s Council – the top level in the Trust’s governance - needs a good representation
of passionate and knowledgeable boat owners. Boat licence holders will have the
biggest user representation (elected by licence holders). With two from boating
businesses, boating representation on the Council will be seven – 20% of the 35
members. Another 13 will be the chairs of the Waterways Partnerships from around
the country – and if you look at the people on the first Partnerships, you’ll
detect about half have links to boats. The remaining 15 places include people
from the Waterway Recovery Group, the Railway and Canal Historical Society and
four in aggregate from walkers, anglers, cyclists etc. The composition of the
Council will be reviewed after 3 years and there is a commitment to move to 50%
being elected.
In addition, there will be a Navigation Committee to help the
Trustees and the executive staff. And I encourage boat owners to get involved
with the Waterway Managers and let them know – nicely! – when they find things
are not right.
And I wonder if you are aware of the meetings between BW
Executives (and non-executive directors) and the British Waterways Advisory
Forum, made up of various national waterways groups; or of the Waterway Users
Special Interest Groups meetings and meetings with the boat trade where views
are exchanged?
MONEY
The Trustees are currently negotiating hard to get
the right financial deal with Defra; this means increasing the £39m p.a. on
offer. But Defra isn’t the only source of money. About £100m p.a. comes from
other sources – split roughly equally between property rents; income from cables
running under the towpath and water sales; and boats. Personally, I can’t see
that the Government will fill the gap to the extent that everything is perfect
and there is then no need to seek donations etc. Donations also need to be seen
in context. If we were lucky enough to get to £7.5m p.a., that’s about 5% of the
current £150m p.a. spent on the waterways. I know people say users who don’t pay
should contribute – I see generating donations from the wider public as a way of
spreading the load to some of the other 13m or so people who enjoy visiting the
waterways.
You say you believe some of the financial projections are wrong.
Can you help me by saying which ones you thinking of?
MANAGEMENT
Sorry but getting rid of the current directors now – in the midst of much change –
doesn’t make business sense to me. Let’s get the handover to CRT completed
first!
As CRT is taking over all the obligations and duties of BW, it will
take over the existing pay contracts of all staff (and anyway TUPE applies).
Although you suggest tearing up existing contracts, I wonder how you’d feel if
you were transferred to a new employer who changed your pay terms? So getting to
the desired level from the existing level will need careful thought.
You know the background of the new trustees – one from Oxfam, one from the WRVS, one
from the Ramblers; another from English Heritage. They know what is paid in
those organisations and in other major charities.
I began looking around and came across “Charity Finance” magazine whose September 2011 issue carried a
survey of CEO pay levels (including bonuses) of the top 100 charities (by
income). These ranged from £710k at Nuffield Health via £400k (Welcome Trust) to
under £50k (Salvation Army). Many were in the £100k-200k range.
I think the start point on pay levels has to be to consider what level does CRT have to
think of offering when it next needs to recruit?
Having got the other CEO information I mention above, I tried to compare these charities with CRT – and
hit a problem. With what do I compare CRT? National Trust (CEO £160-170K) has
historic buildings but nothing like the same engineering problems – nor the
question of keeping potentially dangerous water in the right place. Network
Rail? Not a charity; larger than CRT; also has an old infrastructure and a big
network – but again no “nasty” water; their CEO is on £560k. Oxfam (CEO
£110-120k) has no similar infrastructure or commercial assets to manage. Unlike
many charities, CRT will have very substantial non-donation income – see above.
CRT needs to employ the right people to maintain that income.
You can, I hope, see the problem. So you won’t be surprised to hear that outside
consultants have been brought in. Their report is being considered by the
Trustees – Tony Hales (Chair) said at the Birmingham annual meeting last month
that performance related pay in the charitable sector is awarded more by
exception and then at lower levels than those currently applying in British
Waterways. Tony Hales has also said that the Trustees will make public the
advice they receive from the specialist consultants and will make a clear
statement of future policy on executive pay before CRT starts in April. You
might like to bear in mind that in pushing for the charity idea, BW directors
knew it would mean pay changes.
You mention middle management. Please do
talk to the Waterway Managers. Invite them on your boats. Email them with
problems you find – if you don’t, will they know? Bear in mind that central
contracts mean using bulk buying power to reduce costs. They provide
flexibility. For example, this winter there will be a large tree cutting
programme. Instead of diverting staff from stoppages etc or taking on more staff
for a short life project and then laying them off, tree cutting contractors will
be brought in The reality is that efficiencies have bought around
proportionately more maintenance for the reduced money available. That’s
certainly not to say that the waterways don’t need considerably more maintenance
– see my point about striking the right deal with government.
MOORING
I understand BW’s enforcement team has been concentrating on driving down licence
evasion – with quite some success. I agree that the Trust must also tackle
mooring abuse and I understand that it is next on the enforcement team’s agenda.
And you know from the Trustees’ October announcement that moorings and
residential boating are on the list of policy matters to be reviewed.