PERSONAL BACKGROUND

  My family bought English holiday Cruises Ltd. We operate the two biggest Riverboat Hotels in the UK, MVs Oliver Cromwell and Edward Elgar. We offer full-board holiday cruises along the River Severn Navigation out of Gloucester. The business is quite unique in the UK but is similar to the river cruise operations on the major waterways in Europe. We bring in around 2,500 holidaymakers to Gloucestershire every year from all over the country. The PR and financial benefits for Gloucester and British Waterways here are substantial. Our passengers will spend close to £1 million this year on their holidays with us, including their direct spending in local shops and hotels. The benefit of this to local suppliers, employees and service industry is locally significant.

ISSUES RAISED

  1.  Our business relies on the local waterway for its success. The DEFRA funding cuts to British Waterways threaten the continued safety and economic viability for our business because they threaten the continued smooth operation of lock and bridge structures; the safe management of other river users; the erection and maintenance of adequate signage and information systems; the removal of obstructive vegetation from sightlines along the navigation; and most importantly, the maintenance of an adequate depth and width of safe water along the navigation for our large vessels.

  2.  We enjoy a constructive relationship with the local management and staff in British Waterways. They are familiar with our requirements and help us to run our day-to-day operations efficiently. However, some incidents of insufficient maintenance of the infrastructure along the Severn Navigation have begun to appear. Local management blame "budget constraints" for these incidents. We are concerned that this portends a remorseless deterioration in the operating environment of our business.

  3.  Our most significant specific issue relates to the impact of funding cuts on the stretch of the River Severn north of Gloucester known as the "Partings", which form the main gateway to our cruise routes. This stretch is prone to silting up and regular (expensive) dredging is necessary to maintain an adequate depth for our safe navigation. According to the Transport Act of 1968 the British Waterways "Board" was required to "maintain the cruising waterways in a suitable condition for use by cruising craft, that is to say, vessels constructed or adapted for the carriage of passengers and driven by mechanical power". The Act goes on to say that this requirement was limited to vessels of the same or smaller size as were operating in 1968. At that time local vessels were up to 140ft long x 22ft wide x 8ft deep. This implies that a water depth of 10ft should be maintained. Our larger vessel, at 138ft x 22ft x 5'6", draws less. We only need a water depth of 8ft. We checked with British Waterways when we acquired this business in 2004 whether this depth would be maintained and were told that it would. However, we are now told that British Waterways will merely "aim to provide six feet of water between Gloucester and Worcester" (letter from BW Technical Director, 7 February, 2007). This deteriorating outlook is no doubt another result of the DEFRA budget cuts. If we only have a depth of 6ft, we will not be able to cruise that waterway safely at any time and on many occasions, when the prevailing river levels are low, we may not be able to cruise at all. If that happens we will most likely have to close our business down, we will lose almost all of our own money (which is tied up in the business) and Gloucestershire will lose the economic benefits we bring in.

  4.  There is very strong and growing demand for our products. We have already grown volume by 50% over two seasons. If we were assured of a regular dredging programme for the Partings and a return to the standards of service from British Waterways which we originally experienced, we could expand our business by acquiring more vessels with confidence and could expect to double our volumes again over the next two years.

Richard Clements, Managing Director

English Holiday Cruises Ltd

March 2007