Moving inland waterways to civil society - Defra workshop
On 15 July Defra hosted a facilitated workshop at its Innovation Centre in Reading for waterway stakeholders on the current proposals to move inland waterways to civil society. The particular scope of the event was to consider the inclusion of EA managed navigations in any new civil society body set up to manage waterways.
Objectives of the workshop were to:
- provide information to stakeholders about the Government’s position, moving to the civil society and the work being done by the project on governance, legislation, funding etc
- explore EA’s current plans and thinking for the management of its navigations as a baseline for considering change
- identify ?the issues around including EA navigations in the new civil society body
- assist all concerned to understand the possibilities and implications of including EA navigations
- identify the stakeholders challenges/issues which need to be born in mind by Defra, BW and EA and to discuss possible solutions
The desired outcomes were stated as:
- Increase understanding of the proposed change
- Identify the stakeholder concerns and generate ideas to address these
- Move thinking towards a partnership approach
The workshop was attended by some 40-50 invited representatives of organisations from across the waterways sector.
The scene was set by Sarah Nason, Defra Deputy Director (EA Sponsorship and Inland Waterways) followed by a passionate presentation by BW Chief Executive, Robin Evans on the civil society opportunity and one by Stuart Taylor, EA Head of Recreation & Navigation on the Agency’s strategy. A further presentation on stakeholder governance and a framework for engagement by Nigel Johnson, BW Corporate Services Director was followed by active workshop sessions to identify concerns and issues and to generate ideas.
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