My MP James Sunderland (Con) and I don't exchanged mails all that often, but I do occasionally bother him about environmental issues. Usually of course he toes the government line and sends me an emollient reply explaining why he sympathises with my complaint but doesn't agree to my suggested action.
Well this week wrote to him again about the proposed cuts in the DEFRA funding for CRT from 2027. If I've understood it right, these cuts amount to £300 million over ten years, so that averages a loss to CRT of £30m a year. Now last years grant was £52m so that represents a 60% cut!! No wonder CRT's chief exec Richard Parry is alarmed.
So what did I say to my MP? Well I pointed out that in the ten years since CRT took over the job they've done a lot to look after themselves raising lots of external funding and recruiting an army of volunteers. The CRT income from other sources last year was £162.6m from charitable donations, boaters licences and mooring, property income, and income from utilities, so the government can hardly say that CRT isn't pulling it's weight in raising funds.
I also pointed out that £30 million a year is a piddling amount for the government to find for all the benefits the waterways deliver to the millions who use them. £30 million represents the cost of a mere 176 yards of HS2 which few people want.
Then I quoted some stats from CRT's annual report about the numbers of people using the waterways and towpaths and the public health and environmental benefits provided which clearly substantially outweigh the small cost of maintaining the budget at previous levels.
So I asked him to join with other MPs in opposing these cuts. I don't think he will, but he might. We have no waterways in our constituency so he doesn't get much voting benefit from speaking out. I await his reply.
You, dear reader, may have an MP with more at stake locally in terms of sympathy for the waterways, so why not drop him or her a line. The more the better.
Of course by 2027 many existing MPs will not be in parliament so who knows what the new lot will do and think. Pressure needs to be kept on.
2 comments:
Neil,
Good on you for writing to your MP. How about writing also to the Sec for State for DEFRA? And how about starting a letter writing campaign? Bombardment by mail would be great. How do you organise here in the UK for questions in the House? Are there MPs that would be sympathetic in Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Aylesbury, Cannock, etc that could be approached?
Interesting to read your post this morning: we had Ian and Irene from Free Spirit on board yesterday afternoon/evening (cards, dinner, much chat) and we discussed the CRT budget and upcoming cuts in relation to the HS2 budget. Like you and Kath, we have been boating for decades (I&I far longer than us) and like you, we have all noticed the degradation of the network, in spite of BWB and latterly CRT's best efforts with diminishing income.
Cheers, I think...
Marilyn
There is a very interesting David Johns video - Cruising the Cut Ep.304 on this very subject, where he interviews Richard Parry - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpSudyrlNmA Also included in the comments is a link to be able to e-mail your MP.
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