An extra 3m

THE Canal & River Trust has announced £3m additional investment in its waterways, with most of it on dredging.

Around £2m will fund dredging projects on the Erewash, Trent & Mersey and North Stratford canals, which brings the total spend on dredging to £7m this year.

The remaining

The remaining £1m will go into a vegetation management, repairing waterway walls and towpaths, improving sanitary stations and mooring locations, and perhaps narrowboatworld has been listened to in its complaints of the 'terrible six' of the Trent & Mersey, as we are told it is making lock operation easier.

This additional investment is available because the Trust is anticipating that it will exceed its revenue target for the year and earn more money than originally planned. The investment will be targeted at specific projects across the network, identified locally from customer feedback.

'Great news'

Richard Parry, Chief Executive of the Trust praised:

"It's great news that, thanks to a lot of great work behind the scenes, we're in a position to put this extra investment into improving things for our boating customers.

"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. That's why I'm very pleased that, with guidance from our Navigation Advisory Group, we can target this investment at those areas we know will really make a difference.

"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."

The projects up to April 2015

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