British Waterways At A Glance

• British Waterways manages 80 per cent of the canals and rivers in England, Scotland and Wales, caring for 2,200 miles of our canals and rivers. In the past decade 200 miles of new waterways have been opened, the first time the network has grown since the mid-19th century.
• Half the population of the UK lives within five miles of a British Waterways canal or river
• Over 33,000 leisure boats, including narrowboats and pleasure craft, and a further 30,000 canoeists regularly take to the waters
• Around 4.3 million people a fortnight visit the waterways
• In 2008/09, British Waterways spent £101.6 million on waterway maintenance and major works
• Our property portfolio includes 1,654 locks, 54 tunnels, 3,115 bridges, 417 aqueducts and 91 reservoirs
• Some 500 miles of fibre-optic cables have been buried beneath British Waterways’ towpaths
• Each year we sell nearly £5 million worth of water
• We remove 28,949 tonnes of fly tipped rubbish and visitor waste from our waterways every year weighing more than 4,000 Routemaster buses
• British Waterways also looks after the 137 miles of waterways in Scotland – for more information visit www.scottishcanals.co.uk

SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS – our waterways play a key part in the battle against climate change

• Every year, our canals and rivers provide £67million worth of vital flood defence and drainage that helps to deal with the effects of climate change. Canals relieve flooding by transferring, intercepting and storing water
• Our waterways hold almost 200,000 mega litres of water – enough to fill 80,000 olympic-sized swimming pools. Half of this water is recycled and supplied to commercial users, including farmers and fire brigades
• British Waterways is making a valuable contribution to reduce the nation’s carbon footprint by producing renewable energy projects, with Partnership for Renewables
• Some large scale projects are in the pipeline and one of the first to come to fruition is already giving us an idea of how successful the canal can be at reducing carbon footprint. GlaxoSmithkline’s canalside HQ works with British Waterways to dissipate 1 megawatt of heat into the canal. The savings to the environment are significant, equivalent to taking 409 family-sized cars off the road
• We are the first public corporation to explore opportunities for wind turbines and small-scale hydro power schemes. We believe that our waterside land could host around 100 megawatts of renewable energy capacity

Routes for sustainable transport

• Almost two million tonnes of freight is carried on the waterways each year
• At London’s Olympic Park, British Waterways’ newly built Three Mills Lock has restored the East End’s Bow Back Rivers to transport, creating a green gateway for barges entering the Olympic Park and reviving water transport in the area for the first time in 50 years
• Three Mills Lock has opened up the rivers in the area for the sustainable movement of materials by water, providing access for barges carrying construction traffic and recyclables between Stratford and the Thames. In the longer term the works will allow new opportunities for leisure boats, water taxis, trip boats and floating restaurants creating a major boating destination in the area

REGENERATION – shaping towns and cities

• British Waterways and its joint venture partners are currently working on more than 100 waterway schemes worth £11.7 billion of regeneration, of which:
  • almost one third are in regional or central Government priority areas
  • £150 million worth of affordable housing will be provided
  • £30 million will be spent on restoring heritage structures, including the refurbishment of 83 important historic buildings
  • 65 per cent will create new or enhanced access to the waterside, including 186 new moorings for boating – an activity that is proven to improve visitor enjoyment
  • almost 25,000 jobs will be created
  • 85 per cent will have 257ha of brown field land – an area almost twice the size of London’s Hyde Park

A COMMUNITY ASSET – yours to enjoy

• Up to 400,000 inactive people are likely to benefit from physical activity because of a canal
• 60 per cent of waterway visitors say they exercise more regularly because they live near a canal – 26 per cent of these increased their physical activity by a large amount
• When towpaths and immediate environments are improved, they are used more and often use doubles
• Almost 20 million cycle visits are made to the canals every year
• £980 million is spent during 277 million visits to the waterways each year
• 22,000 jobs are supported in local economies
• 50 million visits are made by children aged under 15
• Now, with at least 13 million people visiting waterways every year, the network is thriving.
• With more than 30,000 boats afloat, our canals and rivers are actually busier now than they were at the height of the industrial revolution
• The hire boat industry contributes £61 million to local communities every year and supports 1,521 jobs
• It is estimated that every year, visitors from overseas who are in Britain for a boating holiday, spend £16 million whilst they’re here

HERITAGE & NATURE – living history

• British Waterways is the largest owner of listed buildings in the UK after the National Trust and the Church of England. It is also one of the largest owners of wetland sites, scheduled buildings, Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and conservation areas in the country
• Our waterways pass through World Heritage Sites, historic battlefields, registered historic parks and thousands of archaeological sites
• In 2008, 90 per cent of British adults agreed that canals are an important part of the nation’s heritage