INLAND WATERWAYS (IMPROVEMENT OF NAVIGATION) (Hansard, 22 February 1972)

§ Mr. John Parker (Dagenham)

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to establish a central authority with powers to control navigation on all inland waterways in England and Wales. The Department of the Environment has stated that it will adopt a policy based on a recent report to create regional group water authorities. It will replace 1,400 water supply and sewerage organisations with 10 by 1974. These water authorities are to be based on the catchment areas of the rivers. Most hon. Members will agree, I think, that this overhaul of our water supply and sewerage arrangements is long overdue and they will welcome the idea. All these new regional catchment area water authorities are to be under a National Water Council under the Minister.

The Department is, however, proposing to abolish the British Waterways Board and to divide the canals between seven regions, some of which have few or no canals. There is need for a national water authority to control all inland navigation, not only on the canals, as in the past, but on the rivers as well. If we are to modernise the amenity and transport purposes of our waterways, such a body is essential. It should be responsible directly to the Secretary of State. Its chairman should be a member of the National Water Council, and it should control all navigation activities of the regional boards.

Why is such a body necessary? First, through navigation needs to be controlled centrally. Canals are not limited by watersheds. Through routes run from one river basin to another. They are fed on one side of a tunnel by reservoirs on the other side and there are tunnels between watersheds. Unitary organisation of waterways is necessary from the point of view of navigation. What is true of canals is also true of river navigation.

It would be necessary to have all-in licences for boats. Some people seem to think that boating happens only over a small, limited area. People who want to boat on a week's or a fortnight's holiday want to travel extensively along canals or rivers, from one part of the country to another, and they want to 1116 find uniform conditions wherever they go.

At present, the canals are supported partly by income from the sale of water and so on and partly by the hiring out of warehouses and other facilities. But there is a grant of about £2 million from the central Government. What will happen to the financing of navigation in future? Is this grant to be abolished? It appears from statements which have been made that grants are expected to come from local sports council or from the people who use the canals. Without some substantial Government grant, the whole system built up or brought back into being in the last few years will collapse.

The main interest of any reasonable water authority must be the supply of water and sewerage. Navigation is bound to be low on its list of priorities. One cannot expect the users of waterways at present to find any very large revenue towards improving waterways or keeping them going.

On the Broads, there are no locks t[...] be maintained. There has been a steady increase in the number of people using the Broads. Licence fees have brought in a bigger and bigger revenue and a great deal of money has been spent to improve the Broads, to deepen some channels and to open up others which have become silted. But this has happened only because there has been a growth of usage of the Broads and because various facilities have been provided to make it possible. One cannot expect usage to develop without facilities being provided—and that can be done adequately only if the Government are prepared to put up a considerable amount of money.

The Government's present proposals to abolish the British Waterways Board are having an unfortunate effect. Investment in trying to develop traffic on the waterways has dropped. Many local authorities have come forward with grants for canals in recent years and many canals are in the process of renovation as a result. This development, and the commercial development of our waterways, seem likely to stop.

The Waterways Board has got agreement for a scheme for deepening the South Yorkshire Canal and opening up that area, and also for putting a container station at Winsford in Cheshire. 1117 It also has proposals for widening and deepening the Grand Union Canal up to Watford, where there will also be a container station. All these proposals are likely to be at risk unless a centralised water authority is kept in being.

The Water Amenities Advisory Council has done a great deal towards a survey of the remainder waterways and has made recommendations about which should be restored, which should be scrapped and whether some should be confined to angling and so on. All this work will have been in vain if the policy of opening up our waterways is not continued.

The Government do surprising things. They have given a grant to the Upper Avon Trust to bring that waterway back into use. Why not have a general policy on this matter instead of limited grants for particular purposes?

There is an important future for our waterways in leisure use. Many young people intensely enjoy mucking about in boats, whether canoes, sailing boats, motor cruisers or whatever it may be; and we need to develop all these waterways to best advantage in the near future if they are to be there in the years to come, because at present many waterways are on the point of disappearing.

This is the critical moment when we need to take action to retain and develop our waterways. This is the time at which 1118 it is necessary for the Government to give a lead in this matter. Personally, I feel very strongly that by the ending of the British Waterways Board and by the refusal to set up a central authority to control and develop navigation on our waterways, great harm is being done to their future and to the future use of our waterways both for commercial purposes and for recreation.

I trust that the Government will think again on this matter and that this House will support this Bill, which has the backing of all the amenity authorities in the country who are interested in the future of our waterways and their enjoyment by the coming generation.