CanalCuttings - Your FREE online-world British Inland Waterways, Narrowboat, River Cruiser, Canal Boat Magazine, Info Source and Britain's & Narrowboat Holiday Guide.

Almost 600 Pages of Information and Features about canals and their usage - We're not just a Narrowboat Magazine. The website includes River and Inland Waterways information.

The New British Waterways (BW) Structure

The New BW Structure Became Operational on 2 November 2009

Robin Evans the British Waterways Chief executive said "We are committed to reducing our running costs by £10m a year to maximise the money we have available to spend on waterway maintenance. In April 2009 we announced changes to the way we organise ourselves that both contribute to these savings and help us achieve our 2020 vision."

Thirteen smaller ‘hands on’ waterway units (11 in England and Wales, two in Scotland) will focus on waterway maintenance and customer service. BW's other activities such as major engineering, licensing, mooring and regeneration will be undertaken by specialist national teams based around the country.

See the BW (A3 / A4 printable) .pdf document. - We have been advised by BW HQ that this PDF does print at A4 size on a home printer. When printing you must check paper size options (often under properties) on the home printer before printing, making sure the setting is on A4 and not A3 paper size.

When making changes like these, BW says it is crucial that their customers and stakeholders don’t lose touch with them and have all the information they need in respect of waterway boundaries, key people and new contact details.

There is a new leaflet, intended to provide information about the new BW structure and we hope you find our link to it useful. Inevitably details will change, so we recommend that you revisit the page often.

The electronic version on the BW website is at www.britishwaterways.co.uk/contact-us and we ask that you use and download that version in future.

The new structure became operational on the 2nd November 2009.

BW say "It will take a little time to bed down and no doubt there will be teething problems along the way, so I (Robin Evans) ask for your patience and help during the first few weeks."

At CanalCuttings we hope that some short term inconvenience is worth being able to secure a more sustainable future for our beloved waterways.