Case 3: Stonebridge Lock 

In 1997, British Waterways set up the London Waterways Partnership (LWP) as an agent for the government’s Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) scheme.  The objective was to channel £10 million funding into waterways projects in the London area.  It was a key requirement of the SRB that funding decisions were independent.

In practice, British Waterways put great pressure on LWP’s SRB funding decisions.  Funds awarded to BW were kept without the projects for which they were agreed being completed and without BW putting in the match funding that they had promised in their funding applications.  Without consulting LWP, BW also clawed back SRB funds awarded to non-BW projects.

In 1999 BW applied for, and received £240,000 of SRB funding to assist in the creation of a new canoe centre, additional revenue earning moorings and a pub/restaurant at Stonebridge Lock on the river Lea.  The application depended heavily on the proposal for the pub/restaurant as this was to create eight new jobs. BW were to invest £870,000 in the project. 

Work was done later to create the canoe centre and tidy up the lock vicinity, but only after BW obtained further funds from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister duplicating the money they had pledged to find from other sources to match the earlier SRB funding.  Was the ODPM given the full picture on funding?  

In total, BW spent approximately £750,000 of SRB grant funding without committing the promised additional spend or achieving the end result they had pledged.