Birmingham Canal Navigations - Oldbury
Widespread local concern remains regarding recent unauthorised infilling in an historic Black Country canal basin; this was the base for Les Allen the BCN boat-builder in the latter half of the 20th century.
Haulage firm Joseph Holloway Ltd, which used to operate canal boats as well as lorry haulage, was told to stop work at Valencia Wharf, Churchbridge, Oldbury, after piling rubble into it without permission.
The firm has applied for permission to continue the work. It wishes to fill in the canal basin with crushed concrete, brick hardcore and stone, so that it can add an extra 5,000 sq ft of lorry parking space at the company’s premises. The application states that filling in the basin will add much needed space for manoeuvring and parking lorries and trailers, making vehicle movements safer and more efficient. There will be no increase in vehicle numbers as a result and the mouth of the basin will remain as an historical feature, according to the report.
It has sparked protests from canal enthusiasts including the Birmingham Canal Navigations Society, IWA and the Residential Boat Owners Association who want to see the site, which dates back to 1769, preserved as a tourist attraction, maintaining canal heritage.
Waterway interests are concerned that planners may approve, subject to conditions, for the canal basin to be filled in with ecologically safe materials, and that the firm’s application for permission to continue the work would be recommended for approval. However, it is understood that a decision on the application has been deferred pending an inspection visit by Sandwell MBC councillors.
Birmingham Canal Navigations- Smethwick
Outline plans have been submitted by regeneration partnership PXP (a joint venture between Langtree, Advantage West Midlands and Royal Bank Of Scotland) for a housing development of up to 300 homes alongside Smethwick's canal conservation area, some of which are likely to be up to five storeys high.
The site is on the edge of the Old Main Line canal. Much of the six-hectare industrial site is derelict and is bordered by Lewisham Road, Bridge Street North, the recent Brindley I housing development and Smethwick Locks.
The southern edge of the development also borders the New Main Line and an aqueduct protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
In 2001 the Smethwick Partnership prepared a regeneration masterplan aiming to identify new housing sites. Three years later Sandwell’s urban regeneration company RegenCo was set up to drive forward redevelopment projects and viewed the canalside scheme, known as Brindley II, as a priority scheme.
A public consultation was held in January and February 2008 about the proposals, and they are said to be welcomed overall by locals.
The plans would involve demolishing a derelict Victorian building formerly occupied by Everard’s Surrey Works, and the purchase of some privately owned land, possibly through compulsory purchase orders.
With effect from 1st April 2009, the Bridgewater Canal will be operated independently of the Manchester Ship Canal Company by a new Peel (Land and property) Company, The Bridgewater Canal Company Limited. Peel Holdings state that the restructuring of the Bridgewater canal “will give greater autonomy to the new company ensuring that they can invest in the long term future of the historic waterway “.
The new contact details for the company are: The Bridgewater Canal Company Limited , Peel Dome , The Trafford Centre, Manchester , M17 8PL; telephone 0161 629 8334 www.bridgewatercanal.co.uk
The Cromford Canal is to benefit from an £850,000 improvement and repairs works programme.
The work will include renovating the footbridge at Whatstandwell railway station, structural repairs to retaining walls on the canal, tree felling to encourage more wildlife and repairs to the boiler at the ancient Leawood pump house.
Derbyshire County has secured a grant of over £400,000 from the East Midlands Development Agency to carry out the work. This is to be combined with £279,000 from the council and money from Network Rail and canal volunteers, to allow the extensive maintenance programme to begin.
A section of the canal towpath is currently closed as investigations take place at the railway aqueduct.
Over the last three months, volunteers have been trained to use traditional methods to shape over 50 sandstone coping stones. The stones have been used to finish new locks four, five and six on the Junction Canal .
The volunteers’ next project will be bricklaying on the spill weir in Salwarpe, where they will be relaying the brick apron. British Waterways has indicated that it is keen for local people of any age to join them on a whole range of projects that they’ve planned for this year.
Devon County Council, which own and manages the Grand Western Canal Country Park, has allocated £375,000 capital funding over the next four years, for works on culverts and the creation of a reed bed. £345,000 is earmarked for comprehensive surveying, cleaning and repairs of the canal's 30 culverts, most of which are siphon culverts with difficult vehicle access. is the Council envisages that, due to the access issues, its Bridge Maintenance Team will organise the majority of the cleaning using enclosed access teams rather than jetting machines. £40,000 has been earmarked for the creation of a new silt trap and reed bed system to reduce silt and nutrient inputs at a point where a stream enters the canal.
A separate capital bid for £240,000 for the construction of a new visitor centre at Tiverton Canal Basin has also been given approval, subject to evidence that the scheme is deliverable and additional external funding obtained.
Offenders on community orders are to be put to work clearing the towpath along the Grand Union Canal.
The Community Payback Initiative was launched in Hayes on 26th February, by the Mayor of Hillingdon and will be used as an example of best practice to show other London boroughs how their local environment could benefit from the scheme. The project involves offenders removing rubbish, foliage and cleaning up graffiti from the canal area which will open up the towpaths and make it a more pleasant area for residents to enjoy.
London Probation is working closely with Hillingdon Council to make sure the project is completed to the council’s specifications. British Waterways London is supporting the scheme by providing floating hoppers to allow for easy transportation of rubbish and foliage cleared by offenders.
Grand Union Canal – Daventry Arm
Funding has been secured for a project to design a boat lift that could form part of a planned new canal arm for Daventry. Daventry District Council has received £75,000 from Northamptonshire Enterprise Ltd for an options study and outline design of a boat lift, which would link the canal arm with the Grand Union Canal. Currently, there are only two working boat lifts in the UK, the Anderton Boat Llift at Northwich, Cheshire, which was opened in 1875, and the Falkirk Wheel which opened in 2002 and has now become a major Scottish tourist attraction, drawing over 500,000 visitors each year.
The major civil engineering works for the rebuilding the offside lock wall at Woolsthorpe Top Lock, instigated and primarily funded through a legacy made to IWA has now been completed. The field and off-side of the lock have been re-graded, and Morrison Construction has now vacated the site.
The intention is that the off side of the lock and the field is allowed to dry out and settle for about two months when Morrison Construction intend to return and carry out soil treatment and landscaping work.
After discussion with the executors of the estate of Mr Charles Woodman the legacy donor, and British Waterways, It has been decided to wait until the land has stabilised and landscaping has been completed before a commemoration or thank you event is arranged, possibly in the Autumn.
The Grantham Canal Partnership has taken a step nearer to creating a green corridor between the Trent and Cotgrave using a new Grantham Canal link. The Grantham Canal Partnership has approved the findings of a £120,000 Trent Link Green Infrastructure Study, undertaken by consultants Scott Wilson. The chosen route will see 3.5km of new canal carved west of Cotgrave Place Golf and Country Club, which will go north under the A52 and join the River Trent east of Holme Pierrepont. The £25m project includes a marina within or on the edge of Cotgrave Country Park and would also create a 'green corridor' for pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders.
The infrastructure study, carried out by Scott Wilson on behalf of the Grantham Canal Partnership, studied a number of route options.
The Grantham Canal Partnership hopes the plans will become a reality by 2025 and is now seeking funding.
The study investigated the feasibility of creating a landscape corridor between the Trent and Cotgrave Country Park. Funding for the project was provided by East Midlands Development Agency, IWA, Grantham Canal Partnership, Nottinghamshire County Council and Rushcliffe Borough Council. Key features of the proposed corridor are a navigable link between the Trent and the Grantham Canal and the provision of multi-user trails and improved visitor facilities for walkers, cyclists, anglers, bird watchers and horse riders, as well as boaters.
The first stage of the study investigated route options for a new canal link, taking into account environmental, engineering, cost and planning constraints and opportunities. The later, more detailed, stages involved the development of an illustrative Green Infrastructure Master Plan for the study area, based around the proposed canal link and the restoration of the existing Grantham Canal between Gamston and Cotgrave.
The proposed Green Infrastructure Master Plan further identifies an environmental conservation corridor and additional opportunities for recreation, access to nature, education, leisure and tourism. In addition to reconnecting the canal with the Trent, it would protect wildlife sites and the report recommends safe recreational links across the A52. A summary of the study's findings was presented at a public meeting on 19th March.
About 400 fish are thought to have been killed by pollution in a river and canal in West Yorkshire. The Environment Agency is investigating the incident at the river Colne and Huddersfield Broad Canal.
The dead roach were found in and around the Aspley Basin after the agency received reports of "distressed and dying" fish from local angling groups.
The cause of the pollution is unknown, and officers have appealed to anyone with information to come forward as there is no obvious evidence of pollution. Water samples from the river and canal are being tested.
British Waterways has asked boaters to help conserve water on the Kennet & Avon Canal following a pump failure.
The main water source for the canal is from an abstraction on the Avon near Claverton. This water is supplemented by a number of other smaller feeders along the 87 miles of the canal and is then recycled using a back pumping scheme. A pump failure at Bradford on Avon, next to the most heavily used lock on the canal, and the largest pump in the chain, has led to need to conserve water until the repairs can be carried out.
British Waterways operates two pumps at Bradford on Avon. With one of them out of use BW cannot get the water from below the lock pumped back up to the upper wharf as quickly as necessary.
As well as sharing locks, boaters are asked to make sure that the lock paddles are fully lowered to prevent unnecessary leakage and that local signs and advice are followed.
Throughout February and March, British Waterways has been recycling the sludge and silt it has removed from the upper River Lee Navigation in clearing the navigation channel between Cheshunt and Waltham Town to also provide a benefit for waterway wildlife. The material is considered to be ideal for creating a soft bank, which is the best environment for burrowing animals like the water vole to nest in. The water vole is the UK's fastest declining mammal and the initiative is in support of the Government’s announcement, in February 2008, giving full legal protection for water voles.
The Link was officially opened on 24th March. However, the first boat to pass through Liverpool’s new 1.6 mile canal route extension made its way past the Pier Head on 26th February. A video recording of this trip is still available to view at :
http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/videos-pictures/videos/videos-news/
-and scroll down for Liverpool Link video
The new canal link, is hoped to bring further economic benefits to Liverpool, echoing a time when the city’s docks were a transhipment hub for inland waterways freight.
The £22 million funding package was provided by Objective 1 European Regional Development Fund and North West Regional Development Agency, through the Waterfront Connections programme. The Agency’s funding was in recognition of the economic potential of this project.
Manchester Ship Canal - Salford Quays
A delivery of construction materials for the MediaCityUK site in Salford Quays has made the final leg of its journey using the Manchester Ship Canal rather than the motorway network, aiming to reduce the environmental impact of the movement. The first shipment, 75 tonnes of paving – the equivalent of three containers – left the Port of Liverpool in March for a six-hour journey up the Canal on a 76-metre barge. On arrival at MediaCityUK, a crane was used to unload the paving directly from the barge onto the site. It will eventually be used in the construction of external areas such as roads and walkways across MediaCityUK, and in the five-acre public plaza at the centre of the development. A further 400 containers are to be moved using the Manchester Ship Canal over the coming year. Each container delivered by barge saves about two wagon journeys by road, and a total saving of around 53 tonnes of CO2 approximately equivalent to the amount generated by driving a medium sized petrol car around the earth more than six times. The process of transporting the materials is being overseen by MediaCityUK management contractor Bovis Lend Lease, in conjunction with Peel Ports. Developed and managed by Peel Media, MediaCityUK will provide a purpose built home for the creative and digital sectors. The BBC is to move about 2,500 staff to the development in 2011.
The Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal is once again fully open to visitors after 18 months. British Waterways commemorated the event with a ‘thank you’ gala event for local communitieson the 29 March 2009.
The occasion marked the culmination of nearly 18 challenging months of work, along with £7.5m investment by British Waterways.
The canal was declared officially open by Waterways Minister Huw Irranca-Davies, who was joined by First Minister Rhodri Morgan at Goytre Wharf .
River Nene
The Environment Agency has been using a giant crane to dredge the river Nene as part of a six-week clean-up operation to improve the town's flood defences.
The silt taken out of the Nene near the Carlsberg factory in Northampton has been used to improve flood defences in other areas of the town.
Instead of removing the silt and sending it to landfill, workers are putting it onto barges and then transporting it down the river and using it to shore up the raised earth flood defences near Bedford Road.
The Broads Bill has now finished its passage through the Lord’s Select committee; it is expected that it will receive its third and final reading after the Easter parliamentary recess.
As part of its crack down on non-licensed craft, British Waterways removed three unlicensed and illegally moored boats from the Oxford Canal in Oxford on 5th March.
Despite repeated requests from the British Waterways enforcement team, the owners’ failed to comply by licensing the craft and/or removing it from the waterway, so British Waterways used its powers under section 8 of the British Waterways Act 1983 to remove the craft from the water. Two of the craft will be destroyed while the third will be sold and monies recovered.
Currently on the South Oxford Canal the British Waterways enforcement team is dealing with 17 cases. Five craft have been removed, two are waiting to be craned out of the water, and two have been licensed by their owners. The remaining eight boat owners face the potential of their boat being removed from the water subject to the outcome of final discussions with enforcement officers.
Strabane Canal is likely to remain closed for at least another year. The gates of the Canal have remained locked since 2007, when Strabane Council highlighted numerous flaws in the work carried out by Strabane Lifford Development Commission, the body tasked with completing the £1.3m restoration project; since when little progress has been made.The snag list includes the removal of an unstable ramp, loose stonework and repairs to drainage. The cost of bringing the project right up to standard could be as much as £300,000. Following a heated debate the Council has decided to await the results of an audit.
