Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)

My Lords, this amendment seeks to add the Canal & River Trust to the list of public authorities that are subject to the provisions of the Bill, which would in turn make it subject to the provisions of the Environment Act 2021—a landmark Conservative legislative achievement. Our canal tow-paths, once the proud arteries of industrialised Britain, are now too often strewn with litter, fly-tipped waste and the detritus of neglect. My amendment would place additional duties on the Canal & River Trust, sending a message to the trust that those who use canals regularly demand cleaner canals. When Britain largely deindustrialised and other modes of freight transportation became preferable, we were left with a question mark over the future of canals. If noble Lords who travel on the west coast main line look at the railway line, they will see that it follows the link of the Trent and Mersey Canal—as it weaves its way from the north-west down to London, you can see those former industrial and logistic communities of the past—but, today, millions of people want to use our canals as pleasant urban green spaces. They are a space for leisure and exercise. Many people live on our canals, and they have become an important space for wildlife in city centres. Sadly, the state of many of these routes, particularly in urban areas, has deteriorated to an intolerable point because of increasing quantities of litter on our tow-paths. This is a creeping pattern of degradation, whose harms are civic as much as they are environmental. It was reported in the Islington Tribune on 23 May this year that local campaigners had founded the cleaner canals campaign, bringing renewed attention to this issue and underscoring the impact of litter on residents and wildlife alike. The campaign speaks for many who feel that the trust’s decision to remove garbage bins from the urban tow-paths two years ago was fundamentally wrong. One of the campaign’s leading voices, Oliver Mosley, expressed this plainly. Commenting in the article, he said: “Despite receiving £50 million of taxpayers’ money annually, the Canal and River Trust have decided to remove bins from our canals in Islington, resulting in appalling levels of waste which are an eyesore and a threat to the wildlife”.