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Cotswolds Canals Lottery win


Tim Lewis

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This is excellent news.

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It also estimated an additional £5.5m per year would be spent in the local economy

I'd say it would also support economies beyond the Stroud region, seeing that the presently-isolated canal will be connected to the main network. What about health benefits beyond simple visitor footfall as well? All those trees being planted has a much wider implication.

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1 hour ago, doratheexplorer said:

In light of the electric boating thread, wouldn't it be amazing if the works included the installation of towpath electric charging points?

There'll be hundreds of folk eating their hats in 2023 already if the canal opens - if electric points turn up too, I'll be adding to the total! :D

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4 hours ago, Chewbacka said:

I doubt CRT will take it over (assuming it is offered) in which case a licence will have to be bought.  My guess is £25 for a week.  I shall start saving ?.
Should be an interesting trip.

Yes and probably strict controls on moorings. None of that cc ing nonsense. £25 seems rather cheap for a week. 

 

 

Edited by magnetman
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7 hours ago, Chewbacka said:

I doubt CRT will take it over (assuming it is offered) in which case a licence will have to be bought.  My guess is £25 for a week.  I shall start saving ?.
Should be an interesting trip.

I would be surprised if it is anything like this cheap considering that considering that the Basingstoke canal is £43 for a week the Avon £50 and the Wey up to £91!

 

Tim

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14 hours ago, Tim Lewis said:

I would be surprised if it is anything like this cheap considering that considering that the Basingstoke canal is £43 for a week the Avon £50 and the Wey up to £91!

 

Tim

The Droitwich Canal Society didn't do that when they completed their very successful restoration..

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1 hour ago, Sea Dog said:

The Droitwich Canal Society didn't do that when they completed their very successful restoration..

The Droitwich Canals Trust didn’t directly restore the Droitwich Canals single handedly. It was one of the bodies that formed the Droitwich Canals Restoration Partnership. British Waterways were another, as were local councils. I suspect the Cotswold Canals have similar arrangements.
 

Personally I’d be surprised if CRT weren’t obliged to take on the restored navigation.

 

JP

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CRT do seem to have a stake in this, from the Corwolds Canal Trust website

 

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Major funders for the project are The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Stroud District Council (£2.3m), Cotswold Canals Trust’s members and donors’ contributions (£2.2m), Gloucestershire County Council (£700,000) and the Canal & River Trust (£625,000). Cotswold Canals Trust will continue to fundraise for the remaining £1.2 million needed.

 

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2 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

The Droitwich Canals Trust didn’t directly restore the Droitwich Canals single handedly. It was one of the bodies that formed the Droitwich Canals Restoration Partnership. British Waterways were another, as were local councils. I suspect the Cotswold Canals have similar arrangements.
 

Personally I’d be surprised if CRT weren’t obliged to take on the restored navigation.

 

JP

But for CRT there is no revenue from these few miles of cotswold canal but there will be ongoing costs - dredging, lock repairs etc.  I predict they will not want it unless it comes with a big bucket of cash.  Not sure they can be forced to take it.  Didn’t the council that ‘owns’ the Basingstoke canal try to get BW to take it on some years ago, but they declined.

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3 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

The Droitwich Canals Trust didn’t directly restore the Droitwich Canals single handedly. It was one of the bodies that formed the Droitwich Canals Restoration Partnership. British Waterways were another, as were local councils. I suspect the Cotswold Canals have similar arrangements.
 

Personally I’d be surprised if CRT weren’t obliged to take on the restored navigation.

 

JP

The Droitwich Canals Trust restored all the "easy" bits themselves, but came up against something of a brick wall with the major jobs - M5 and A449 in particular,and progress more or less ground to a halt.

BW were then in expansive mode and reflecting on the glories of the Millennium funded projects, and agreed to get involved. There's no doubt their input kick started the project again and got it completed.

But now CRT have much less money, and I can't see them taking on liabilities for additional waterways unless there is some guaranteed long term additional funding.

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I was thinking a dead end canal of 7 miles in length and 12 locks on the fringes of the system makes a lot more sense as an integral part of a wider system rather than a stand alone entity. Politically I was thinking CRT may not ultimately have the ability to say ‘no’ even if they wanted to. It’s not a good message to send to their paymasters given they were set up for that very purpose.

 

JP

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CRT is one of only four "core partners" to the HLF bid (the others being CCT, Stroud DC and Gloucestershire CC). I think you can therefore take it as read that they intend to be involved with the ongoing management of the canal.

 

What sums of money change hands behind the scenes to enable this is another question, but I would expect that the HLF grant comes with a condition that the canal will be open to navigation x% of the time for the next y years. So in theory the first few years' maintenance should be "baked in" to the project cost and/or the partners' budgets already. But @magpie patrick will know much more than me about this sort of thing.

Edited by Richard Fairhurst
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3 minutes ago, Richard Fairhurst said:

CRT is one of only four "core partners" to the HLF bid (the others being CCT, Stroud DC and Gloucestershire CC). I think you can therefore take it as read that they intend to be involved with the ongoing management of the canal.

 

What sums of money change hands behind the scenes to enable this is another question, but I would expect that the HLF grant comes with a condition that the canal will be open to navigation x% of the time for the next y years. So in theory the first few years' maintenance should be "baked in" to the project cost already. But @magpie patrick will know much more than me about this sort of thing.

For phase 1a it was 80 years - 30 is more typical but HLF were funding land purchase. 

 

There is a general condition relating to maintained in a navigable order but there was no specific % of time available, although there are conditions along the lines of "best endeavours" - as monitoring falls back fairly quickly it is basically dependent upon NLHF (as they are now) receiving a report that all is not well. Bear in mind the potential penalty is to repay ALL the money (unlikely, but possible) which tends to focus the mind a bit.

 

Any bid for this sort of project will include a costed plan as to how the canal will be kept open afterwards, so for example lock gate replacement might be costed in at 25 year intervals, dredging at ten. On phase 1a I persistently (but not always effectively) pleaded with them not to skimp dredging as all they would end up doing would be dredging again sooner rather than later

 

 

On 17/10/2020 at 15:10, buccaneer66 said:

BW where part of the original partnership but pulled out.

They were, but there is a back story to this and in 2025 I might tell it

On 17/10/2020 at 15:27, john6767 said:

CRT do seem to have a stake in this, from the Corwolds Canal Trust website

 

 

It does join a CRT waterway, and from memory it IS a CRT waterway as far as Whitminster lock!

On 17/10/2020 at 13:50, Captain Pegg said:

 

Personally I’d be surprised if CRT weren’t obliged to take on the restored navigation.

 

JP

They are certainly not obliged to, and last time I spoke to the trust that wasn't the plan. Stroud Valley Canals Company will run it, the already run the restored length from Stonehouse to Bowbridge

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Following progress in "The Trow" magazine, much time and money has been invested in dredgers,mud boats and other plant. All lock keeping and lengthsmen and women aree vollunteers. The whole project has the look of a well run operation. If the canal is run like Heritage Railway groups,then supporters will support projects on a one off basis,ie set up a fund to replace a set off lock gates. The project does not end when restoration is complete.

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