British Waterways Withdrawal from the Cotswold Canals Partnership

Following British Waterways' surprise announcement to withdraw from the Cotswold Canals Partnership on Monday 4th February 2008 (see British Waterways Press Release), Stroud District Council, at a meeting on 5th June 2008, voted in favour of applying to the Heritage Lottery Fund to have the funding transferred.

On 26th June Stroud District Council announced that it had been successful in its application to the HLF (see SDC Press Release).

Stroud District Coucil now has to take the final decision to proceed at a Council Meeting scheduled for 16th December 2008.

Above: How a restored section of the Stroudwater Canall enhances new housing at Ebley,
near the Stroud District Council offices.

Welcome to Stroud!
Below: Urban decay at Wallbridge is one of the first sights that greets the visitor to Stroud town centre, with the unrestored Thames & Severn Canal full of rubbish and derelict land alongside. The years of numerous boarded-up shops within the Stroud are now thankfully over, but this prominent area is a bad advertisement
for the town.

Above: This is a view from the opposite direction showing the canal is infilled for a short distance. Stroud traders are opposed to the construction of a new bridge at this point which, as well as removing an obstruction from the canal and improving this area, would provide safe pedestrian access under the A46.

And just a few months prior to BW withdrawal...