British Waterways has now become the Canal and Rivers Trust

Did you know that the former quango (one of the largest), British Waterways, has now been reconstituted as the Canal & Rivers Trust, with charitable status?

Of course it is still the large and important organisation that it ever was, but now with commercial and managerial freedom to act faster and more flexibly in achieve the objectives set by the government - and these are pretty well unchanged, apart from the requirement for greater efficiency.

Now there will be local boards where the public, councils and various stakeholders, e.g. boat owners, anglers etc, can be represented - and now we can all join up as individual members and get better involved.

The picture shows Tring Mayor, Nick Hollinghurst, signing up at the canal junction at Bulbourne on the day of the Wendover Arm Fundraising Walk on 2nd September, 2012