British Waterways make much of their commitment to freight transport by water. Their website gushes:

"In 2000 we committed to doubling the freight carried on our water by 2010 and this continues to be our long-term target. In July 2003 we launched our freight marketing strategy which focuses on developing waterborne transport particularly for containers, minerals and waste & recycling."

In the same timescale, but in the real world, British Waterways stopped at least two Department for Transport funded initiatives, one to restart mineral transport on the river Weaver in Cheshire, the other a successful pilot scheme showcasing the transport of containerised household waste on London's river Lea. In the latter instance, the private sector company had contracted with the Department for Transport to run no less than five pilots.

BW made much of their support for both projects, but worked behind the scenes to disrupt them. When this did not prove sufficient to deter the initiatives, BW acted to stop both projects.

Meanwhile, unsure on which side of the freight transport fence it sat, an unwilling British Waterways London Region demonstrated incompetence on a grand scale in a half-hearted, ill-considered initiative on the Grand Union canal.

The article links found on the top right of this page reveal BW's deceit and bungling on freight transport.

There are others. British Waterways Action Forum are collecting details on more such examples of BW's Alice in Wonderland approach to the sustainable freight transport that we should have on our waterways and these will be published on this website in the coming months.

In many places throughout the UK, particularly in cities, water transport has the potential to bring real benefits to the environment and, well designed, to do this at lower cost than the road alternative and to add considerable value to certain road-based operations such as waste and recyclate collection.

The government introduced the Freight Facilities grant system to encourage the move from road to water transport. Global warming has made this an imperative. In the face of so obvious a requirement, British Waterways are planning to close their Freight Transport department.