Restoring Britain's derelict waterways – progress, barriers and opportunities

This gave a total of 58 restoration schemes included in the research. The bulk of the mileage and projects are in England, with just six restorations in Wales. The research to identi which restoration societies to approach found no active waterway restoration societies in Scotland. The study did not cover Eire or Northern Ireland as that is beyond the remit of IWA’s charitable purposes.

Mileage under restoration

The questions relating to mileage produced the total mileage figures shown in Figure 1 below.

The research aimed to identi how many waterway restoration projects are in a position to benefit om current and forthcoming Government and third-par funding opportunities.

It was carried out through a questionnaire to waterway restoration organisations, which aimed to identi what stage waterway restoration projects across England, Scotland and Wales were at, along with identi ing the problems and barriers that are currently preventing progress.

The overall objective was to get as wide a picture as possible of the waterway restoration sector so it was important to be sure that all active waterway restoration organisations were contacted. Consultation with IWA’s Restoration Hub identified all active organisations known to be on IWA’s corporate member list, or having a ended recent restoration conferences and events. Crossreferencing this list with the 118 waterway restoration projects listed in the then Inland Waterways Ameni Advisory Council’s 2006 Third Review report then took place, along with identi ing any new projects that had started up since that report was published.

The specific objectives of the research were:

• to confirm which derelict waterways have active organisations progressing their restoration

• to determine accurate figures for the number of miles currently under restoration at di erent stages

• to discover what barriers or problems are preventing progress on these restoration projects

• to enable IWA’s Restoration Hub to be﬙er prioritise its activities to support restoration organisations in building their own resources so that they will have the capaci to deliver projects when funding opportunities arise.

Completion rate was important to obtain a definitive answer to the question of how many miles are currently under restoration. The 94% completion rate in fact represented just three organisations who did not respond to the survey. For these three projects it was possible to use approximate mileage figures based on information available in the public domain (internet research looking at the relevant organisations’ websites). This enabled a meaningful set of total mileage statistics in the various categories to be identified.

In total, 55 organisations were identified and contact details obtained. All were sent the survey questionnaire and supporting documents, and 52 organisations responded. Three organisations responded on behalf of multiple projects, while other organisations that are working on multiple waterways provided a combined response. Several organisations also included branch canals as part of their overall response but these were regarded as being part of the same restoration project.

The estimate of 500 miles currently under restoration, o en quoted by IWA on its website and in publications, is not far out, with the total mileage identified as planned for restoration in the longer term by active restoration groups being 516 miles. This increases to 566 miles when 50 miles of proposed new build waterway is added in. Ten percent of the miles identified as feasible for restoration have all planning permissions and funding in place with work progressing.

The other figures represent the di erent stages of progress of the various projects.

Lack of resource, experience and capacity

Respondents were asked which specialist areas they felt their organisation did not have enough capaci , experience or resource in, out of a list of 18. There was also an option for ‘other’ to allow for any topics that hadn’t been listed.

Three organisations responded to advise that they had capaci in all of these areas, e.g. (the trust) “has full competence in all the above” and “the partnership has all the necessary skills to fully restore”.

The highest number of responses were for ‘funding’, which 77% of responding organisations identified. In the current climate of austeri , this is not a surprising find but also highlights the importance of ensuring that the sector builds capaci so that new funding opportunities can be exploited.

The category with the next highest number of responses was ‘volunteer recruitment’, with 58% of organisations experiencing a lack of volunteers. This represents a significant challenge to those groups, as even if grant funding was o ered to them, many are unlikely to have the capaci to take advantage of it.

The next and third highest number of responses was ‘ecology’, with 56% of organisations identi ing this as an area in which they were lacking skills and knowledge.

Figure 2 gives an overview of the findings om this question.

Top three barriers

This was a שׁee text box giving an opportuni﬚ for organisations to prioritise the top three problems they were currently facing. The results were consistent with the findings of the question about lack of resources. Funding continued to be the top concern of most organisations, with 32 respondents (23% of barriers raised) identi﬌ing funding as one of their top three barriers.

Volunteer recruitment was again the category with the next highest number of responses (21 responses representing 15% of the barriers raised). While most respondents mentioned the difficulties of recruiting sufficient active volunteers generally, three specifically cited the requirement for younger volunteers.

The third highest grouping was a new category, with 14 responses relating to ‘permissions’. These outlined the difficulties in obtaining permissions שׁom bodies such as the Environment Agency, Natural England or the relevant navigation authori﬚.

The next highest grouping was also a new category and related to political will and support שׁom local authorities at both elected and officer level, with 11 responses (15%). Local authori﬚ planning issues received eight comments, with three of those organisations having concerns about housing and retail developments affecting their restoration.

It is worth noting that it is likely that there are other issues not covered by the responses to this question, simply because the organisation (or person responding to the survey) is not aware that it is an issue, yet.

Figure 3 gives an overview of the top barriers.

Conclusions

The research identified the following:

• 53 derelict (or new-build) waterways being actively restored (or built) by 50 organisations

• a set of accurate figures for the number of miles currently under restoration at different stages (see Figure 1), with an overall total of 566 miles

• the barriers and problems which are preventing progress on these restoration projects (see Figures 2 and 3), with funding and volunteer recruitment coming out as the top two for both barriers and where organisations perceive that they are lacking in resource.

The main barrier to waterway restoration projects making progress has indeed been the availabili﬚, or lack, of thirdpar﬚ grants and other funding, as indicated by the responses to the questions about barriers and lack of resources.

Volunteer recruitment and knowledge of biodiversi﬚ and other ecological issues were the next most significant areas where organisations were lacking resources, which may indeed affect organisations’ abili﬚ to deliver projects even if sufficient funding was currently available to them.

Recommendations

As well as using the information provided in the research to update information on IWA’s website, the following three recommendations have been put to, and agreed by, IWA Restoration Hub’s High Level Panel:

Building capaci in the restoration sector

IWA’s Restoration Hub’s High Level Panel should use the results of the questions around barriers and lack of resources to help build capaci﬚ in the restoration sector. The topics identified as being highest in need (funding, volunteer recruitment, ecology, permissions, marketing/PR/ communications and communi﬚ engagement) should all be prioritised for training and topics at workshops, webinars and the annual restoration conference breakout sessions.

Influence Government departments and agencies

IWA should use the findings of this report to raise with relevant Government departments and agencies such as the Environment Agency, Natural England and others, the problems being experienced in the bureaucracy and costs of obtaining permissions. In many cases these are presenting real stumbling blocks to progressing restoration schemes and an opportuni﬚ exists to campaign for simpler and cheaper procedures.

Raise awareness at a political level

IWA should use the findings of this report, alongside the separate Waterways for Today report, to raise the profile of waterway restoration and the wider waterways sector generally. Both reports should also be used to engage with local authorities and MPs to ensure support for waterway projects is included in initiatives such as the Levelling Up and Shared Prosperi﬚ funds.