Canal & River Trust
The Canal & River Trust is a non-profit organization that in the succession of state authority British Waterways historic inland waterways in England and Wales in July 2012 managed and preserved. The Trust is responsible for 3,450 kilometers of canals , rivers , ports and water reservoirs, museums , archives and England's third largest inventory of listed buildings.
Headquarters is in Milton Keynes . The area of responsibility includes England and Wales. Around 2,000 people are employed and supported by the same number of volunteers.
The inland waterways of England and Wales essentially emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries and were the transportation routes of the Industrial Revolution in England. They have never been thoroughly modernized - although public transport routes - have become a nationwide open-air museum, which since the 1960s has essentially only been used for recreational boating with so-called narrowboats .
The administration of this legacy of the industrial revolution by a state agency caused annual losses in the tens of millions. In order to relieve the public budget permanently, the British state transferred the inland waterways and all associated facilities to the non-profit Canal & River Trust, which is responsible for fulfilling its tasks. a. can also solicit donations and use volunteers. However, partial state funding will continue to be provided for the first fifteen years.
This has a long tradition in Great Britain, just think of the National Trust , which as a private non-profit organization has successfully preserved historic castles and large parts of the English coastline for more than a hundred years.