Trust Triad in Third Sector pact with BW

British Waterways has announced its move into the 'third sector' and piloting the craft on this very doubtful journey will be the The Kennet and Avon Canal Trust Triad made up of of absentee Chairman, David Rees, General Manager, Mike Rodd and their 'blagging-blogger', former BW employee, Terry Kemp who between them continue to steer the Trust into ever deeper financial chaos.

Speaking from his bunker in deepest Devon, Chaiman Rees said: "A key feature will be the drive to attract more volunteers to the canal. We can achieve this by offering new opportunities and demonstrating that it's worth getting involved because there is a real chance to make a difference".

This man has no knowledge or interest in the K and A — or canals in general and in the few months that he has been Chairman he has already overseen the abandoning of the 'volunteer model' in two of the Trust's tea rooms which they now let out to the highest bidder because they could not run them at a profit with unpaid volunteers as staff.

You have to ask the question that if the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust cannot run a tea room at a profit — what chance is there of them running a waterway successfully? The fact is that the only volunteers they can get are those that want to play on trip boats or with the two pumping stations and they manage to succeed despite the interference of the Trust administrators in Devizes.

The new trip boat, The Kenavon Venture, that unlike the Trust's other three boats, has to operate within interfering distance of Mike Rodd and is not attracting very many paying passengers has, in the short time they have been running the boat, already managed to overheat the engine which has made major repair work necessary.

As with other major changes at the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust, the membership will not be consulted — and this unelected and unrepresentative Triad will make fundamental changes to the role of this Charity and the membership will be presented with a fait accompli.

Unelected — surely not! Well the fact is that none of these three are elected members of the K and A Canal Trust Council. Mike Rodd is a paid member of staff, David Rees was parachuted in to become the new Chairman without any reference to the membership and he was co-opted on to Trust Council and immediately made Chairman. He will not actually be an elected member of Trust Council until the Trust AGM.

Terry Kemp's is a very interesting case because he resigned from being a Trustee at the beginning of this year — so that he could do two months paid work on a 'volunteering strategy' for the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust — and then — surprise, surprise he was co-opted back on to Trust Council immediately the paid work came to an end. I am reliably informed that this is not inline with the spirit of the Trust's constitution that specifically excludes Trustees from being paid for work for the Trust. But then this is not the only area where the Triad, presumably with the support of the rest of Trust Council, pay scant regard to the K and A Canal Trust contstitution ... of which more later.

Kemp's jig continues

Is there no limit to the mayhem that the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust's blagging-blogger, Terry Kemp, can cause along the length of the K&A Canal?

He has just announced that after spending countless thousands of pounds of grant money on the PACT Centre in Pewsey to provide an art gallery, meeting rooms and IT access for villagers, the Pewsey Area Community Trust, of which he is a leading light, is to sack its staff and shut up shop after only three years.

Happily for Kemp this will not leave him idle as his jig continues along the canal to Honeystreet. He is also a leading light in the Barge Inn Community Project that has just got £270,000 from the village SOS project run by the BBC and the Big Lottery Fund.

They intend to use the money to buy the lease of the pub. Heaven help this popular canalside pub - because if Kemps previous ventures are anything to go by it will not be long before that folds in chaos.

Alongside this venture he has his business 'Facilitating People' (www.facilitatingpeople.co.uk) which he runs with former BW cronies. Strangely if you want to volunteer with Kennet and Avon Canal Trust you have to email "terry.kemp@facilitatingpeople.co.uk" and not the Trust's offices in Devizes.

Could it be that Mr Kemp sees himself as the volunteering supremo in the BW/K&A Trust alliance that he, General Manager, Mike Rodd and absentee Chairman, David Rees are trying to engineer? I think perhaps he does and I wonder what Rees and Rodd are hoping is in it for them.