Canal Boat — January 2018

(Jacob Rumans) #1

12 January 2018 Canal Boat canalboat.co.uk


NEWS


You’d better watch out...


...and not just for the odd overhanging branch or
boat coming the other way. Santa Claus is indeed
coming to town by boat (and helping to raise some
money for canal restoration as well as some
Christmas cheer) on canals around the country.
The Chesterfield Canal Trust’s annual Santa
Special cruises will see Father Christmas welcoming
people on board its trip-boats every weekend (plus
20-22 December) with presents for children and
mince pies and drinks for adults. You’ll need to book:
trips run from Retford (07925 851569), Shireoaks,
Worksop (both 0114 360 0460), Tapton and
Hollingwood (both 01629 533020). Meanwhile the
Cotswold Canals Trust will see St Nick getting afloat
at Saul Junction every weekend – no need to book.
And on the Wey & Arun, he’ll be boating on 10, 17,
21 22 and 23 December – see weyandarun.org.uk.
The Peter le Marchant Trust will run Santa Cruises
in Loughborough, and CRT at Anderton.


Less than a year after it was launched, the
Lichfield & Hatherton Canal Trust’s appeal to build
a tunnel under a railway line is already two-fifths of
the way towards its target.
Headed by actor and waterways supporter David
Suchet, the Tunnel Vision appeal aims to raise
enough cash to create a new tunnel to carry the
restored Lichfield Canal under the Birmingham
Cross City railway line on the south side of
Lichfield. Not only that, but it needs to raise the
cash in time for the work to be carried out at the
same time as the extension of the Lichfield

Southern Bypass road across the railway (planned
for completion in 2020) – because doing both jobs
at the same time is the only way of bringing the
cost down to affordable levels.
Even so, the canal tunnel will cost £1m – but the
good news is that following the Appeal launch in
early 2017, £400,000 has already been raised, and
LHCRT Engineering Director Peter Buck said the
Trust was “confident” that it could raise the rest.
Meanwhile work continues at Fosseway Heath
where a nature reserve is being created (thanks to
a grant from the People’s Postcode Lottery), and
on a new retaining wall at the site for Lock 9a and
restoration of a nearby wharf wall at Summerhill.

Faced with the threat of an
invasive non-native weed
spreading and taking over the
River Cam, the Environment
Agency has taken the serious
step of closing the river to
navigation during weekday
daytimes until the pest can be
dealt with.
Floating pennywort has
caused problems on a number


of rivers in recent years
including the Soar and Chelmer.
It spreads rapidly (up to 20cm
per day), forming huge ‘rafts’,
which can cause crowd out
other native plants, affect
oxygenation of the water
affecting fish and other species,
clogging drainage systems –
and making navigation difficult
for boats.
The closure applies to the

length between Bottisham
and Upware, and is in place
from 8am to 3.30pm every
weekday, while the Agency’s
weed harvester is at work
removing the weed. The
problem is also affecting the
adjacent Great Ouse, with the
EA’s contractors working
between St Ives and Bedford,
and on one occasion
removing a single mat of
weed weighing 1.7 tonnes.

CHESTERFIELD CANAL


RIVER CAM


LICHFIELD CANAL


Father Christmas gets ready to welcome childen on board on the Chesterfield

The first stage of Birmingham’s Icknield Port
regeneration development has been given
planning approval by the City Council, signalling
the start of a major scheme which will transform
the adjacent lengths of the Birmingham Canal
Navigations main line and Icknield Port Loop.
The scheme involving the Canal & River Trust
(as landowners) will see 207 new homes, 90
apartments and a public park and canalside
spaces created as the first phase of the 43 acre
waterside development on a derelict former
industrial site.
Meanwhile in Leicester, plans have been
unveiled for a new £900,000 footbridge over the
Leicester Line of the Grand Union Canal, linking
together two current waterside urban
redevelopment schemes on former industrial
sites: the Sock Island scheme on the site of the
old Wolsey textile mill, and the former British
Industrial Shoe Machinery site. And on the
Grand Union’s Slough Arm, a £95 million
regeneration has been approved by Slough
Borough Council. This will see a run-down
canalside industrial area around the terminus
replaced with 240-home residential
development, in what is described as “a bid to
regenerate the Slough Basin into a destination
for boaters and canal lovers alike”.

Go-ahead for Birmingham
canalside development

BCN


Foreign weed closes River Cam


Lichfield on track for £1m rail crossing

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