Walking facilities improved on Towpaths.

[Alan de Enfield]

Richard Parry announces £45 million to be spent upgrading 100 miles of towpaths for easier walking

 

 

The biggest ever upgrade of canal towpaths is being planned to turn muddy, neglected routes into safe, good quality surfaces for walking and cycling.

The Canal and River Trust has proposed 30 towpath improvement schemes for inner city and urban areas, including Burnley, Wigan, Sheffield, Bradford, Birmingham, Leicester and London. The plans cover more than 100 miles of towpaths and will cost about £45 million over five years.

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/walking-and-cycling-routes-unlocked-in-plan-to-transform-100-miles-of-towpath-wx8fwfm77

 

https://www.positive.news/society/three-good-things-initiatives-to-promote-active-travel/

[Athy]

That sounds very good.

May we take it that there will be a similar increase in spending on dredging and lock repairs?

[Jen-in-Wellies]

1 minute ago, Athy said:

That sounds very good.

May we take it that there will be a similar increase in spending on dredging and lock repairs?

The Times article is paywalled and the other link makes no mention of funding. Unless it is extra money from somewhere, then it will be instead of spending on dredging and lock repairs.

[Athy]

3 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

The Times article is paywalled and the other link makes no mention of funding. Unless it is extra money from somewhere, then it will be instead of spending on dredging and lock repairs.

Yes, it was a rhetorical question.

[CLAN1]

Coventry canal lots of work taking place on the tow path for all the walkers and the cyclist to speed and threaten pedestrians,'we've all seen it' and of course they don't contribute anything to the upkeep etc. However us boaters will be, the canal is a disgrace overhanging trees  and vegetation blocking ' safe navigation ' but that doesn't matter as long as tow paths are good. Thats only one canal I'm sure we can all name more.

[Rob-M]

Unfortunately most towpath works are funded through other means which means the money can't be used for dredging or repairs. The likes of sustrans aren't going to care about offside vegetation or volunteers from the local M&S will want to have a good path and maybe some nice flowers, do they worry if a lock gate leaks.

[Awayonmyboat]

I believe I read that licence fee only raises about 20% of the cost of running the network. Therefore I presume a substantial part of the remaining funds come from central government. In that case the general taxpayer is already paying heavily for the network so I would have thought they deserve good footpaths as much as licence payers deserve good locks. Also I would have thought the more people who regularly walk/cycle the towpath the more defenders of the network there will be and that will be to everyone's benefit.

[mrsmelly]

2 hours ago, Awayonmyboat said:

I believe I read that licence fee only raises about 20% of the cost of running the network. Therefore I presume a substantial part of the remaining funds come from central government. In that case the general taxpayer is already paying heavily for the network so I would have thought they deserve good footpaths as much as licence payers deserve good locks. Also I would have thought the more people who regularly walk/cycle the towpath the more defenders of the network there will be and that will be to everyone's benefit.

If only it were that simple. Cyclists destroy wet towpaths with deep ruts making it near impossible for walkers and boaters to use in wet weather. When towpaths are surfaced such as on stretches of the K and A amongst others all that means is that cyclists can then get their heads down and do 30 mph. Doing theses speeds doesnt ruin a surfaced towpath but it does make them dangerous places for walkers and boaters. A cycle is a vehicle and in the UK we have approximately 262,000 miles of roads that are constructed for vehicle use, we have about 2,000 miles of towpaths. If you buy a vehicle you should use it on a road as its intended.

[Jen-in-Wellies]

So far we just have these two CaRT sourced "journalism" pieces linked to in the first post. There is nothing I can see on the Cycling and Rambling Trust web site, so any speculation on how much and sources of funding is just that. Perhaps it is not an overarching scheme at all, but just CaRT packaging up several existing programs, funded in a variety of ways, to make a news story and get a bit of publicity. 

 

For example, one of the areas mentioned is Sheffield. The tow path between the Tinsley area and the centre of Rotherham was upgraded to a tarmac surface mixed cycle/walking route a few years ago. The section from Tinsley to the basin in Sheffield is slowly being improved with a graded gravel surface from the mixture of gravel, potholes and mud it currently is. This has been going on with mixed paid and volunteer labour for the last year, before being rudely interrupted by a certain virus. No ideal what the funding is here, but the Rotherham to Tinsley upgrade wasn't CaRT money. There are no other tow paths in Sheffield at all, so the "news" story isn't news, certainly as far as Sheffield is concerned. 

 

Jen

[Mike Todd]

19 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

The Times article is paywalled and the other link makes no mention of funding. Unless it is extra money from somewhere, then it will be instead of spending on dredging and lock repairs.

The second article makes it clear that CaRT are seeking funding for thew plan and that cost (at least not all of it) will not come from the same budget as canal maintenance. This is entirely consistent with the towpath upgrades already done. Some are undertaken by CaRT-badged projects some by others but they have not been CaRT funded.

 

As one who can remember what the towpaths were like before this fashion for persuading ,local authorities and others to seem them as part of the open air provision, I have long welcomed the strategy. OK, so we now have vastly more people using the towpath than boaters and sometimes there is competition for the space but the net effect is beneficial. That was all true before the present situation regarding the future funding for CaRT and the importance of making the canal network of value to as many people as possible. It is wholly unrealistic to assume that boating alone will sustain the network in a usable condition.

[Alan de Enfield]

C&RT will try and get Government and Lcal Authority money :

 

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/news-and-views/news/we-are-proposing-active-travel-improvements-for-towpaths

 

The proposed improvements include places such as Burnley, Wigan, Sheffield, Bradford, Birmingham, Leicester and London. We are seeking to secure a combination of government and local authority funding for the schemes.

 

There is a real opportunity to build upon this – in addition to the increases we’ve seen in people fishing, kayaking, paddle boarding and taking hire boat holidays with research showing time spent by water makes people healthier and happier. The proposed improvements will support travel.

[matty40s]

Leicester towpaths are already owned by Leicester.

The navigation and navigation structures are managed by CRT. 

I hardly think Leicester needs to spend more on something that from Kings Lock to Cossington Lock(well outside the city boundary), is already tarmac and good for the whole distance.

I think adding Leicester is either a quick win name, or they are expecting Leicester to add escalators from city centre bridges and accesses.

[john6767]

Does it give any detail on exactly where these Improvements are?  I thought that everything in Birmingham (and most of the BCN) was already a high speed cycleway, courtesy of thr cycling project.  So where exactly is left to be “improved”?

[Alan de Enfield]

28 minutes ago, john6767 said:

Does it give any detail on exactly where these Improvements are?  I thought that everything in Birmingham (and most of the BCN) was already a high speed cycleway, courtesy of thr cycling project.  So where exactly is left to be “improved”?

 

Could it be a bit of 'sharp practice' ?

 

Please Mr Government, gives us £45m and we'll upgrade the towpath in Leicester and Birmingham.

 

2 or 3 years later - look Mr Government , all done.