Scottish Waterways Trust

The Scottish Waterways Trust was an independent registered charity, established as part of The Waterways Trust in 2000. In 2012 The Waterways Trust merged its operations in England and Wales with the Canal & River Trust, and the organisation in Scotland became an independent charity.

In 2009, sailing and marine activities in Scotland were in relatively good health despite the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession, but the British Waterways Trust was already consulting about changing from being under state control to trust arrangements.^[2] Responsibility for Scotland's inland waterways is a devolved issue and British Waterways Scotland received grant funding from the Scottish Government, with two members of the board being appointed by Scottish ministers.^[3] The formal separation of responsibility for Scottish waterways from that for England and Wales was described at the time as "mak[ing] for very challenging times".^[4]

The Trust set up the Canal College skills training programme in Falkirk and Edinburgh for young people aged 16-25 years of age which ran 2013–2015, which had helped 162 participants by February 2016.^[5][6] It was recognised as an innovative scheme with a positive impact.^[7][8] The Canal College 2 was a larger programme based in Inverness which launched in 2017 to run for a period three years.^[9][6] This initiative provided education and training in canal skills to unemployed young people.^[6] The first participants completed the scheme later that year.^[10] Previously Waterways Trust Scotland had been involved in smaller scale project work in the Falkirk area to increase employability.^[11]

El fideicomiso organizó voluntarios para limpiar y mantener los canales. ^{[ 12 ]} Ayudó a enseñar a los voluntarios algunas habilidades tradicionales de esclusas y construyó habilidades de patrimonio. ^{[ 13 ]} Trabajó en proyectos de regeneración y turismo y patrimonio. ^{[ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 16 ]} Apoyó una exposición de arte sobre el tema de los canales. ^{[ 17 ]}

El Trust llevó a cabo una investigación sobre los beneficios de la red de canales escoceses. ^{[ 18 ]}

En marzo de 2019, la organización benéfica reveló que se enfrentaba a una grave situación financiera y que iba a despedir a empleados. ^{[ 19 ]} Un par de meses después se confirmó que la organización benéfica había cesado sus operaciones, y algunas de sus actividades, incluyendo el colegio del canal y el trabajo de Canal Heritage, serían continuadas por la organización benéfica ambiental Keep Scotland Beautiful . ^{[ 20 ]}

• Lista de sociedades de vías navegables en el Reino Unido

• Archivo de www.scottishwaterwaystrust.org.uk/
• https://www.oscr.org.uk/about-charities/search-the-register/charity-details?number=43477
• Canales escoceses
• Entrevista con la directora ejecutiva, Karen Moore , 2017