NABO Home

Details
Category: NN Editorials
Hits: 521

 

The three Rs

- Rebranding, reorganisation and reactions

Editor, Peter Fellows, takes the collective pulse of boaters after the latest changes by CRT.

CRT rebranding continues to provoke reactions, with many questioning why signs that are only read by boaters were changed within days of the relaunch ‒ most boaters know what CRT is. Why not focus the marketing effort on the claimed 90% of people who apparently don’t know that CRT is the authority that manages their nearby waterway? (And also work towards changing the attitudes of some of these people so that they see canals as a resource, rather than a convenient dump for the detritus they no longer want). It would seem that someone in Government must have given CRT the nod that ‘health and wellbeing’ is where the money lies in future. If this is not the case, the change in focus is a huge gamble. Peter Underwood from ‘The Floater’ believes there is another way to fund the Trust and I have included a recent editorial explaining his view. I have also included a letter to boaters from Richard Parry on the rebranding, together with a response from Stella Ridgway and a selection of comments from boaters on social media. There is also a justification for the new logo from its designer. Elsewhere, David Fletcher explains what we need members to do in the light of the new General Data Protection Regulation, together with an update on changes to the way that NABO communicates with its membership.

Read more: NABO News Editorial July 2018

Details
Category: NN Chairman's Column
Hits: 457

Can you hear us?

Stella Ridgway is looking forward to meaningful discussions with CRT, rather than just being fed information.

CRT was in its infancy when we moved onto our boat. You may remember Richard Parry held road-shows and regular meetings with boating organisations, and seemed to genuinely want to listen to boater’s views. Admittedly, he was taking over an organisation that had deliberately not spent its budget, and had a policy of closing canals rather than maintaining them. The challenge was to bring boaters along with the new organisation.

Read more: In the Chair July 2018

Details
Category: Boater Safety
Hits: 459

Following media reports this June about non-working imported carbon monoxide (CO) alarms sold on internet shopping sites, the Boat Safety Scheme (BSS) is cautioning boaters, that choosing the right CO alarm is an especially critical decision as boats can fill in minutes, sometimes seconds, with lethal levels of the highly toxic gas.

Read more: Choose the right CO alarm – or die!

Details
Category: Other Live Issues
Hits: 607

All change at CRT

with new Regional Directors

 

CRT’s new regional structure was put in place on 4th June and the following Regional Directors have been appointed:

  • London & South East – Ros Daniels. She has extensive experience of the heritage and tourism sector, most recently as Head of Historic Properties, London at English Heritage. She has managed a variety of historic houses, gardens and countryside for English Heritage and the National Trust. Her waterway connection is that, in her spare time, she is a ‘keen canoeist and paddle boarder’. 
  • Wales & South West – Richard Thomas. He has had a long career in the Royal Navy, in which ‘he transited two canals’. He also says he wants to become a liveaboard boater, with ‘aspirations to live afloat on the canal in Gloucester.’
  • West Midlands – Adnan Saif. He has worked in senior positions in local government, regeneration and economic development, and is currently Chief Executive of the British Muslim Heritage Centre. He has also founded and led many non-governmental and voluntary organisations at local, European and international levels and he started a social enterprise initiative that seeks to improve leadership and service delivery in local government and civil society. He has no waterway connections.
  • East Midlands – Phil Mulligan. He is a professional third sector manager with management experience in the voluntary sector, notably as Chief Executive of the Landscape Institute, Executive Director of the United Nations Association UK, and Chief Executive of Environmental Protection UK. He is also a National Trust Council member, representing the Conservation Volunteers, an organisation on whose Board he served for five years. 
    He also had a key role in the Government's involvement in the creation of CRT as Vice Chair of Defra’s Civil Society Advisory Board. He has no known waterway connections.
  • Yorkshire & North East – Sean McGinley. He is currently the East Midlands Waterway Manager, and has worked on the waterways in management and engineering posts for 16 years. H
  • North West – Daniel Greenhalgh is the interim Regional Director, (for up to 12 months). He was a site engineer for a Liverpool civil engineering contractor before joining the waterways in 2005. He is a senior manager at CRT, responsible for major canal infrastructure projects and formerly the delivery of all the Trust’s operational contracts.