The British Marine Federation (BMF), Royal Yachting Association (RYA), British Canoe Union (BCU) and Inland Waterways Association (IWA) once again all together talked with one voice to politicians at this year’s Labour and Conservative Party conferences in support of boating, watersports and the boating industry.
Alan Morgan president of BMF - Image courtesy of BMF
The Boating Alliance attended the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, followed by the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester earlier this week.
With only six months to go until the creation of the New Waterways Charity, the Alliance took full advantage to raise its profile and concerns amongst key MPs with waterways interests: Richard Benyon, Waterways Minister and Gavin Shuker, Shadow Waterways Minister.
The Conferences also gave the Alliance the opportunity to raise issues of access to finance for SMEs, the Government’s proposals to encourage more residential boating, deregulation under “The red tape challenge” and increasing inward tourism.
A new feature on the stand at this year’s Conservative party Conference was a kayak simulator.
Inspired by Dr Tim Brabants K1 1000M gold medal win at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, visitors and MPs were challenged to take part in a 20 second sprint. Tim averaged 100m every 20 seconds to achieve his gold medal and competitors at the conference were encouraged to break the “ton”.
Only a select few could match the pace set by Tim; however the feature was a resounding success and introduced the Alliance to a number of new faces from the Conservative Government. Dan Byles MP for North Warwickshire and Bedworth was the overall winner for the MP’s, paddling an impressive 103.2m. There was even some inter-party competition between Robert Goodwill MP, Graham Stuart MP and Bill Wiggin MP, who were all caught tweeting their results!
Howard Pridding, Executive Director at BMF said: “It is really important to have a presence at the party conferences.”
“This year’s stand at the Conservative conference was a resounding success which made the Boating Alliance one of the most visited stands this week, allowing us to catch up with old friends and establish new relationships.”
“The exposure at both conferences has given the Alliance the necessary platform to get our views, issues and concerns, across to the various MPs and key decision makers, enforcing the importance of our sector which has an annual turnover of nearly £3bn.”
Over the coming months, the BMF will be following up on all contacts made during the past fortnight, ensuring that our industry is represented at the highest levels in Government.
