The Canal & River Trust has laid out plans for spending its £3m of extra revenue in 2015
Canals in England will receive an extra £2m worth of dredging work between now and April 2015, the Canal & River Trust (CRT) has announced.
The Erewash Canal, Trent & Mersey Canal and sections of the North Stratford Canal will benefit from the dredging work, the CRT added.
This announcement comes after last month’s news that the CRT is set to raise £5m more than anticipated in 2014.
A further £1m of extra revenue will be split between vegetation management, repairing waterway walls and towpaths, improving sanitary stations and mooring locations, and making lock operation easier.
Canals from London to Somerset will also benefit from the plans, the CRT explained.
These projects were chosen after consultation with the Navigation Advisory Group, a boaters’ panel that advises the CRT on a number of key issues.
Richard Parry, chief executive of the CRT, said: “We’ve made clear our commitment to improving things for customers as part of our strategy for the next ten years, and we want to maintain the dialogue with boaters to ensure that, when opportunities arise to increase our spending, we can be responsive and apply our resources to make a positive difference.
“I’ve spent a lot of time listening to boaters, through my series of open meetings and elsewhere, and I know that these are some of the things that have a real bearing on their experience of our waterways.”
See below for the full list of projects, with the estimated budget in brackets:
- North Stratford Canal dredging (£400,000)
- Trent & Mersey Canal dredging (£200,000)
- Erewash Canal dredging (£500,000)
- National spot dredging programme (£900,000)
- Towpath improvements including wash wall (£375,000)
- Sanitary station improvements (£225,000)
- Offside vegetation with access improvements (£225,000)
- Visitor mooring improvements (£165,000)
- Lock operation improvements (£55,000)
