YOUR article about the new chief executive of Scottish Enterprise (“Quango boss slated for canal mess”, The Herald, May 11) comes on top of mounting public concern at the closure of the Forth & Clyde Canal; this concern, however, is apparently not shared by the chairman of Scottish Canals, Andrew Thin. In an interview with BBC’s Reporting Scotland (May 10) Mr Thin expressed his belief that the canal was still open “to 99.9 per cent” as he can cycle along the towpath.
Scottish Canals argues that it will do everything it can to fulfil its statutory obligation to maintain the canal while claiming that closures matter little because few boats use the canal. How sad that it has totally misunderstood the concept and real purpose of the Millennium Link project that re-opened the Lowland canals at a cost of £80 million just 17 years ago.
No government would spend that sort of money to reopen canals just for boats. There was a much wider purpose. After the canals first closed in the 1960s they quickly became eyesores – weed choked, rubbish filled, and dangerous. Many of us spent happy dirty weekends pulling rubbish out of the canals during the 1970s. Subsequent experience from other waterways showed that restoring a derelict canal and bringing it back into use had a catalytic effect on regeneration of otherwise blighted canalside land. Extensive economic studies by Pieda and others calculated a net gain to the public sector bodies which owned much of that derelict land if the canals were restored and brought alive with boats – and bikes and canoes. It is the passage of boats that creates atmosphere, interest, and added value to canalside property. The Scottish Government’s policy paper Making the Most of Scotland’s Canals explains the concept clearly: "Boats add colour and interest to the canals. We wish to see further growth in the numbers of boats navigating our canals, and encourage both Scottish Canals, boaters and other parties to work together towards exploiting opportunities to achieve this."
The marine tourism sector in Scotland is worth £360m a year and Scottish Canals has collaborated with other public bodies to promote visits to the west coast by visiting boats from northern Europe. As part of the Millennium Link justification, research showed that an estimated 500 boats each year would use the canal to reach the west coast. Once open, this traffic started to build up, reaching more than 150 boats in the first few years; but repeated short term closures for failed structures and inadequate weed cutting have dented that market. As a result 1,000 boat owners on the east coast have been advised by the Forth Yacht Clubs Association that it is now cheaper and safer to bring their boats across to the Clyde using lorries than to use the canal. Boat owners based at Bowling have been told that to access the slipway at Kirkintilloch they can only navigate through the canal on a Friday. No wonder there are few boats on the move.
I was privileged to have been able to work with former Lord Provost of Glasgow, Bob Gray, when he chaired the joint committee of all the local authorities that helped to promote the Millennium Link. When the original budget was found to have fallen short, it was Scottish Enterprise that found a way of generating additional resources. Let’s hope that the same wisdom can prevail again and avoid the significant waste of effort should the canal once again be shown on maps as “Forth & Clyde Canal (disused)”.
Richard Davies,
16 Fern Avenue, Lenzie.
I WRITE to express my anger at the attack on Steve Dunlop. This is the man who has given our country The Kelpies, Pinkston Watersports Centre, and the North Glasgow Integrated Water Management System. He has turned around the financial fortunes of the Falkirk Wheel and created tourism destinations at Bowling, Ardrishaig and Falkirk. In his time as CEO, there has been £828m of investment, 5,425 new houses and more than 5,000 fulltime-equivalent new jobs created on or next to Scotland’s canals. He has also kickstarted a massive regeneration initiative in North Glasgow that will transform the lives of thousands of people.
Alongside all of this he has created a standalone public corporation that is generating more self-earned income for reinvestment in the nation’s inland waterways than it receives in Grant In Aid from the Scottish Government. Scottish Canals delivers significant public value through a unique form of public entrepreneurialism that Mr Dunlop has driven throughout his time as CEO.
Yet because the bearings and hydraulics fail on a couple of 18-year-old mechanical bridges he is castigated for his alleged failure. No wonder Scotland struggles to retain its most enterprising sons and daughters.
Andrew Thin,
Chairman, Scottish Canals.
1 Applecross Street, Glasgow.
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