Cotswold Canals Trust,

Bell House, Wallbridge Lock, Stroud Gloucestershire, GL5 3JS, Tel: 01453 752 568

Registered Charity no.: 0269721

Registered Office: Island House, Moor Road, Chesham, HP5 1NZ

Registered in England no.: 01

Cotswold Canals Update

As many of you will already know, the application to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for £15 million to allow us to link the restored section of the canal through Stroud with the rest of the canal network at Saul Junction was unsuccessful this time.

The feedback from HLF was, in many respects, very encouraging and we were successful in making the case that the technical challenges were well understood and that the Trust had the capabilities necessary to run the project. It is clear that the biggest issue was that other partners (particularly the Local Authorities) need to be prepared to make a stronger commitment to helping with the matched funding and that a revised bid needs to request less from HLF. It is notable that the five successful projects this year each asked for about £10 million.

We have been advised that breaking down the project would diminish its attractiveness for HLF funding and the work we have already undertaken means that costs have already been optimised to a degree that any further savings likely to be identified would be modest. This leaves little option but to identify and firm up additional funding.

A further complexity is the as yet undetermined Ecotricity planning application. The outcome of this and any S.106 planning obligations pertaining to the canal will have a significant affect on the canal project and the contents of a revised HLF bid including the funding breakdown of the whole project. The uncertainty of the outcome and the timing of any decisions could prove problematic.

There are other aspects of the bid where strengthening, clarification and improvements are possible and work is proceeding with these. These include a better integration of the biodiversity and natural environment aspects of the project and a project partners' workshop has greatly improved everyone's understanding and the scale of the opportunities that exist.

The plan is to resubmit a revised bid in November but this will be dependant on our ability to work with the constraints that have been identified above.

In the meantime, it is possible to get all the way from Eastington to Stroud

by boat along the canal

- provided your boat is small and you are willing to brave the spiders in the culvert under the railway line at the Ocean (see left) and many other challenges.

Ken Burgin

Chief Executive,

Cotswold Canals Trust

Canal project to bid again for Lottery funds,

as new report reveals it could be UK's most beneficial boost for Nature

A renewed determination by the Cotswold Canals Trust to continue with efforts to restore the rest of the Stroudwater Navigation from Stonehouse to Saul has come following 'encouragement' from the Heritage

Lottery Fund.

The Trust was disappointed last May to hear that their bid for £15 million towards the scheme was not among the Fund's winning submissions. But the CCT's Trustees have now formally agreed to make a

renewed bid in November.  Meanwhile, a report from the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust has highlighted

opportunities for the project to create the largest gain for wildlife from any development in the UK.

A new impetus to ambitions for completing the canal's link to the national waterways network follows an informal meeting with the Heritage Lottery Fund's (HLF) grant officers. The project leader, Val Kirby, said: "The HLF recognised the need to follow on from the existing restoration which they had already helped to fund, and appreciated the broad-based support that the project has received from local communities.  They acknowledged that it was a good bid, but failed only in the context of strong national competition. " 

Dr Kirby explained that the Trust understood the project would have a greater chance of success if the size of the bid could be reduced. This would mean securing additional financial commitments from other

sources.  

In response to concerns from the HLF that included unresolved planning approvals and land ownership issues, the team has discussed a number of practical steps that could be taken before the bid is resubmitted. In addition, part of the stretch known as the ‘missing mile’ at Eastington lies within the area covered in the current planning application to Stroud District Council by Ecotricity for a new Eco-Park — a development, if it were to be granted, that could materially influence funding streams.

The report from Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, following a preliminary habitat survey along the route of the Stroudwater Navigation, outlines the national importance of the Severn Vale landscape with its mix of reedbeds, orchards, floodplain, grazing, marsh and hedgerows. The Trust's Head of Land Management, Adam Taylor, said: "In addition to individual elements which benefit wildlife, local communities and the local

economy, visitors will be able to travel along this restored 'green and blue' corridor discovering the Severn Vale's rich Heritage".

For any further info, please contact:

Val Kirby (Tel: 01453 753762 or email valgkirby@gmail.com)

Adam Taylor (Tel: 01452 383333 or email: adam.taylor@gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk

From: Ian Smith,

Press Officer, CCT 'Stroudwater Complete and Connected' (AKA 'Phase 1B')

Tel: 07866 729493. Email: karasea@me.com

PRESS RELEASE