Thursday 7 April 2011

All aboard

In the debate over the name that should be chosen for the new charity that will take over the running of the waterways next year there is a significant body of opinion in favour of retaining "British Waterways" or something very similar on the grounds that this will save money on expensive re-branding exercises and new signage. That's probably a futile hope as any new organisation, whatever it's called, will want to establish its own identity, but I think they should go further. The full name of the organisation currently running the system is the "British Waterways Board" and if that were chosen then these entrance gates to the Board's former Lancaster depot would still reflect their owner's full title!
Most of the former publicly-owned industries seem to have been run by "boards". We had the National Coal Board, the British Railways Board, Central Electricity Generating Board and some people still refer to the "gas board" or "water board" when moaning about the service they receive from their often strangely-named successors.  Still, I suspect the future of a pair of gates at the entrance to a derelict depot in the far north-west of the system will not feature strongly in the decision making process!

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