On 7th July 2010,Tristram Hunt (Stoke-on-Trent Central, Labour) introduced an adjournment debate on the subject of the future of the waterways, with the Minister, Richard Benyon, present.

You can read it by clicking here.

Richard Benyon (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Natural Environment and Fisheries), Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Newbury, Conservative) said, in his next-to-penultimate paragraph:

"I am considering a suggestion recently made to me to include representatives from waterways user groups on the current British Waterways board. We need to be ready for the big change in culture involved in the possible move to civil society."

NABO council is considering the consequences of this statement. Watch this space.