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120 PAGES
Issue 164, June 2019
TALK
FREE
Summer in the city
IWA AWARD FOR MP
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AROUND THE REGIONS ADNAN SAIF
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Narrowboats moored on the Paddington Arm near Sheldon Square strike a contrast with the newly built blocks beyond.
PHOTO: JANET RICHARDSON
SUNSHINE GATHERING
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GALA QUEEN OPENS NEW CRUISE BOAT
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WIN A GREAT PRIZE IN OUR WEBSITE TREASURE HUNT
P66 & 76
BOATS FOR SALE Turn to
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£4m grant will see ‘missing mile’ restored
By Sarah Spencer
A £4 MILLION grant will help reinstate a ‘missing mile’ of Gloucestershire canal that was lost to road builders 50 years ago. The huge project will take the canal straight through a major roundabout in the process.
Cotswold Canals Trust has been awarded the vital funds by Highways England to restore parts of the Stroudwater Navigation, including waterway, locks, bridges and wetlands, which were destroyed when the A38/ A419 roundabout and M5 were built in the late 1960s west of Stonehouse. A five-mile section of canal between
Anniversary landmarks
NEW milestones made of local sandstone will be erected along the Lancaster Canal to help celebrate the bicentenary of the opening of the main channel, writes Geoff Wood. Twenty-four milestones are currently missing between Lancaster and Garstang. Many were removed when it was feared in wartime that an invasion force might use them to navigate their path. Lancaster sculptor Alan Ward, helped by students, has been commissioned to erect new milestones and as part of the project will be visiting local schools with anniversary organisers to teach the skills of marking them.
Boat count
Thrupp and Stonehouse has already been restored and Stroud District Council, Cotswold Canals Trust and partners are working on connecting that stretch to the nation’s inland waterway network at Saul. After winning £872,000 of development funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund last year, the project will find out early next year whether it
THE Canal & River Trust’s annual national boat count shows that licence compliance on its waterways remains high with 96.5% of boaters holding a valid licence (2018: 96.9%). This is the tenth year licence compliance has remained above 95%. The count shows trends across the country, identifying a 2.3% increase in boat numbers, with all regions except the North West seeing small increases. London & South East was the only region where licence compliance was under 95% (at 94.1%). Completed in March, the survey is used to support the trust’s day-to-day work.
will receive a further £9 million to fully restore the stretch between Stonehouse and Saul. The £4 million from the Highways England Environmental Designated Funds Scheme was welcomed by Jim White, Chair of Cotswold Canals Trust.
Fish passes
• Continued on page 2
SCIENTISTS on the River Severn have recorded the year’s first sighting of one of Britain’s rarest fish. A vital research phase of the Unlocking the Severn project got under way in Worcestershire in May, examining the lifecycle of the twaite shad, which each spring begin migration to their natural spawning ground of the Severn’s upper reaches, only to be prevented by manmade structures. The aim is to restore the shads’ access to 158 miles of the Severn north of Worcester by providing fish passes at a series of weirs that currently they cannot swim over or around.