How Can Cross-Sector Partnerships Be Made to Work Successfully? Lessons from the Mersey Basin Campaign (1985–2010)

Abstract

Experience suggests that cross-sector partnerships can turn out to be a big disappointment: a cozy talking shop with plenty of warm words but not a lot of action to show for it. The Mersey Basin Campaign, however, was a major exception. As a government-sponsored 25-year initiative to clean up the rivers, canals, and estuary of the Mersey River Basin in North West England, the Campaign was a pioneer in public-private-voluntary partnership working and, in the period it was active (1985–2010), made great progress in improving water quality, promoting waterside regeneration, and engaging stakeholders, in a region with a history of severe industrial dereliction and pollution. In this paper, by a former leader of the Campaign, a number of themes are explored: Why was a Campaign needed? What did it try to achieve? How did it do this? What particularly factors led to successful partnership working?