Boost for canal fans as new funds flood in

Sunday Express, 13.06.1999 - summary of article

Proposals for Britain's 2,000 miles of canals could make them a huge leisure and conservation resource for the 21st century. British Waterways is expected to propose a double-barrelled approach: a membership scheme and an associated charitable trust. 55,000 jobs that already depend on the waterways. They should also act as a catalyst for improvements such as long- distance cycle routes along towpaths and better access for the 10 million people a year who visit canals.

BW's proposals come as a response to deputy prime minister John Prescott's increase in its grant by £8million a year to £59 million. That, says BW is enough to begin making a hole in the £260 million of work needed to reverse almost a century of picturesque decline. Just making the canals safe will absorb about one-third of the investment.

BW's proposals mean companies, charities and rich individuals could help finance projects. Canalside developments in Birmingham show what can be done. Four of Britain's canal sites have been nominated for World Heritage status and there are 3,000 listed structures along the waterways. They range from cute Georgian lock-keepers' cottages to great engineering works such as the aqueduct that dominates the skyline of Burnley Lancashire.

More than a quarter of a million people take canal holidays each year and British Waterways' lock-gates open and close more than five million times to let them through. BW believes canals are being restored as fast as they were being built at the height of the late 18th century Canal Mania, when fortunes were made and lost (but mainly lost) gambling on new waterways links.

BW accounts for most of the restoration work but a significant part is done by local volunteer groups which are trying to reopen almost every canal that ever existed. Some, like the Hereford & Gloucester and the Leominster, are so far gone that they can only be traced by following depressions in meadows. This, BW believes, proves that people regard canals as local assets and want them in good order

There is a chance, too, that canals could shunt some lorries off Britain's congested roads. New freight projects in London alone might eliminate more than 100,000 lorry movements a year and the Government's Integrated Transport White Paper hopes that 3.5 per cent of all freight movements can be shifted from roads to water.