Navigation Charges - an open letter to all members of the Broads Authority

On Friday 24th November 2023, the Broads Authority board will meet to discuss proposals for another inflation-busting tolls increase - click for the papers.

These proposals have caused some disquiet amongst toll payers.

My letter to all members of the board, sent today (21st November) is copied below. I hope that it might make members understand the real effect of their actions on the Broads' economy.  Perhaps some of them might even be persuaded to take a different view to the officer recommendation.

Dear Member of the Broads Authority

 

I am writing to you as a hire boat operator, a member of the Broads Hire Boat Federation’s executive committee, a private boat owner, and a former member of the Broads Authority and navigation committee for 12 years.

 

This week, you will make a decision which will not only affect individual toll payers and hire boat operators, but the entire Broads holiday industry and its supply chain. 

 

Thousands of jobs rely on Broads tourism which has, at its heart, the hire boat industry. The fortunes of our riverside pubs, restaurants, shops, galleries and visitor attractions are directly related to the volume of boating visitors - and there are numerous local suppliers who rely on the hire boat industry to support them. From upholsterers and canopy makers to suppliers of windows, engines and electrical equipment, hundreds of jobs depend on the local boating industry. You will also have read in your papers that the rivers have been quieter this year, and you are unlikely to have missed media reports of the numerous pubs and restaurants in the Broads which have closed their doors.

 

Earlier this year, the Broads Authority chose to impose swingeing tolls increases of 13% across the board, without proper consultation, and in breach of the Broads Acts. This increase has been formally challenged with the Department for Transport by the BHBF, supported by a legal opinion from a barrister, and BRAG have made a similar objection on behalf of private boat owners. Now, a further increase is proposed which would result in a cumulative increase of up to 24.5% in just 2 years. 

 

Every organisation has to make difficult decisions as a result of changing costs and customer demands. In 2023, hire boat businesses such as our own experienced a year-on-year decline of 20-25% in bookings, to which many businesses responded by dropping prices by up to 40% in a last-minute attempt to stimulate sales. This fall in demand has coincided with increasing costs, the largest of which in both percentage and monetary terms are the Broads Authority tolls.

 

It is not possible for hire operators to use the BA-style methodology of increasing holiday prices to offset these increasing costs - demand would simply drop further. In fact, Hoseasons - the main booking agent for Norfolk Broads holidays - have recommended a price freeze for 2024. As a direct result of these combined pressures, some operators (including ourselves) are selling holiday cruisers rather than refurbishing them - because, if costs increase, then savings must be made. The effect of these actions will be felt across the supply chain - new upholstery delayed, an engine replacement deferred, a new boat cancelled. This is against a background of a year-on-year decline in the number of hire boats, to which the Broads Authority’s response is to increase the cost burden on the remaining vessels. This clearly isn’t a sustainable business model and members must recognise that, when income declines, expenditure must be reduced to balance the books.

 

Your papers tell you that, in order to maintain “service levels”, tolls must rise. But, in order to maintain a thriving boating industry, tolls must actually go down. The 2023 tolls increase was a mistake by the Authority, not just because the consultation was fatally flawed, but because it diverted navigation income to fund non-navigation expenses - contrary to the law. Every year, the Authority sets budgets for navigation and non-navigation (“national park”) purposes, and those budgets should be set according to the income available for those purposes. Every other National Park has to cut its cloth according to its means (not having a navigation account to dip into) - and the Broads Authority is obligated to do the same. However, in 2023, instead of reducing “national park” expenses to reflect the funds available, the Authority decided that it would rather use navigation income to subsidise those functions, by “reviewing” the overhead recovery ratios using a series of arbitrary metrics. The BHBF’s barrister is of the clear view that this was a breach of the Broads Act 1988, rendering the 2023 tolls decision unlawful. 

 

Just 3 weeks after that decision was made, the BA received an apparently unexpected £440,000 additional grant from DEFRA, to address the shortfall in funding for national park purposes, meaning that the financial hole was filled more than twice over - extinguishing any remaining justification for the unlawful misappropriation of navigation funds. 

 

The officer recommendation for your decision this week is predicated on maintaining service levels and protecting jobs. But protecting the jobs of its employees is not a statutory function of the Broads Authority, and - in fact - the tolls increases are causing jobs to be lost in the private sector. It is the duty of every member to protect the public interest and the Broads itself - not to protect the interests of the Broads Authority.

 

Furthermore, far from being required to maintain navigation service levels, the additional increases proposed are to a large degree being used to maintain “national park” service levels. This is an unlawful use of navigation income, and the January 2023 decision to provide additional subsidy to national park functions must be reversed before any decision is made on tolls for 2024. 

 

Your papers remind you of the need to give reasons if you choose not to heed the advice of the navigation committee - but that advice is, at best, unclear. All we know is that the committee were offered 3 choices, and that they voted 6-4 for the least unpalatable option proposed by officers. The papers tell you next to nothing about the advice or opinions of the members - they just report the officer answers to some questions raised, and we can’t begin to guess whether the 4 who voted against wanted a higher increase, or none at all. Once again, you’re asked to make a decision based on a consultation when you’ve not seen the minutes, and the vote shows that there must have been a wide variation of opinion - none of which is reported in your papers. 

 

In conclusion, you are being asked to approve a tolls increase which exacerbates an already unfair and unlawful decision earlier this year, based entirely upon a desire to preserve a “service level” which is unaffordable to the Authority and which relates in large part to non-navigation functions. The cumulative effects are significant for toll payers, and I call upon you to recognise the damage which the Authority is doing to the Broads economy and to its own reputation. I ask you to reject the officer proposals and to insist that the 2023 “review” of shared overheads is revisited to ensure that navigation income and expenditure are equal (as required by law) and that the Authority lives within its financial means across all of its statutory functions. 

 

Thank you for considering my request. 

 

Kind regards

 

James Knight

21^st November 2023