canalboat.co.ukBoats from the national network
look set to return to a ten mile
stretch of the Cotswold Canals,
thanks to the provision approval
of a £10m bid to the Heritage
Lottery Fund by Stroud District
Council and the Cotswold
Canals Trust.
The funding would form the
largest single part of a £23m
package to reinstate the ‘Phase
1b’ section of the Stroudwater
Navigation from Saul Junction
on the Gloucester & Sharpness
Canal to Stonehouse, where it
links up with the six-mile ‘Phase
1a’ section (on which restoration
is already almost complete),
opening up navigation through
to Stroud and up the valley
beyond.
The money isn’t in the bag yet:this is only the first stage of the
approval process, but it does
come with an immediate
£842,000 of development
funding, and it means that the
full £10m has been earmarked
for the project. Final approval
will depend on detailed planning
and the confirmation of another£8m of ‘match funding’ from
other sources (on top of £5m
already secured) – and a
professional fundraiser will be
employed with this aim – but
basically “It’s ours to lose”, as a
CCT source put it. And all being
well, it could be open as soon as
2024.6 July 2018 Canal Boat
CANAL BOAT
NEWS
Your monthly round-up of all the
latest news from the waterways of
Great Britain and beyond
Tell us your news
[email protected]COTSWOLD CANALS
£10m Lottery boost for Cotswold link-up
READ THE FULL STORY IN OUR RESTORATION FEATURE ON PAGE 61In the latest stage of the
Canal & River Trust’s
senior management
reorganisation, a new
regional structure has
been introduced with
big changes at the top:
just one of the existing
ten regional managers
is among the six new
regional directors – and
four are new to CRT.
Sean McGinley, head
of the old East Midlands
Waterway becomes
Director of Yorkshire
& North East. The four
newly recruited are:- London & South East:
Ros Daniels, from
English Heritage - Wales & South West:
Richard Thomas,
formerly in the Navy - West Midlands:
Adnan Saif, from local
government and
the British Muslim
Heritage Centre - East Midlands: Phil
Mulligan, with senior
experience in the
voluntary sector
Finally the North West
Director’s role has been
filled internally on an
interim basis by Daniel
Greenhalgh,
Of the other nine
former Waterway
Managers, two
positions were already
vacant, and four
have transferred to
new roles including
Jon Horsfall (already
seconded as interim
Head of Boating) who
becomes Head of
Customer Support.
That leaves three, of
whom Mark Jon Guest
and Nick Worthington
will leave the Trust.CRT sees the exercise
as part of its move
to a “waterways and
wellbeing” body in line
with the Government’s
agenda (and with a
view to securing future
public funding after its
contract ends in 2027).
Chief Operating Officer
Julie Sharman said the
appointments were
“at the heart of our
proposals to transform
the charity, and to shift
our structure to engage
more effectively with
the outside world.”MAJOR SHAKE-UP FOR CRT REGIONS
Dock Lock, Eastington: boats in six years?LONDON BOAT
SHOW 2019
CANCELLED
British Marine, the
organisers of the annual
London Boat Show, has
announced that the
event will not now take
place in 2019.
This world’s oldest
boat show, it began at
Olympia in 1955, soon
transferred to Earl’s
Court, and then for the
past 15 years from 2004
the show moved to East
London’s ExCel. January
2018’s shorter five-day
event (rather than ten)
was hailed as a success
by organisers, but now
they say “a large number
of key exhibitors were
not prepared to commit
to exhibiting to a five day
Show at ExCeL in
January 2019”,and that
surveys showed that
visitor satisfation was
below acceptable
industry standards.
Although canal boating
has never been more
than a relatively small
part of the event, this
year’s show saw the
return of a once-regular
inland feature, majoring
on holiday hire craft.
BM chairman David
Pougher admitted the
decision was “naturally
very disappointing for
the British marine
industry” but said BM
couldn’t commit to a
show “clearly forecast in
its current format to be
commercially unviable” ,
in contrast to BM’s
“highly successful”
Southampton show.Tell us about your news [email protected]