£650,000 Whitchurch canal project could start next year
Work to transform a stretch of canal in Whitchurch as part of a £650,000 project could start next year, it has been revealed.
Whitchurch Waterway Trust said it hopes to have secured funding for the scheme to extend the canal arm into the town and create a mooring basin by the end of this year.
The trust, which has employed someone to investigate available funding sources, hopes the project will bring canal boat users nearer to the town centre to help boost tourism.
Work, which was originally thought to cost £475,000, could now reach up to £650,000. Costs include landscaping, altering car parking, surfacing and excavating soil.
Plans for the small arm extension to the Shropshire Union Canal near the Wrexham Road entrance to the town were approved by Shropshire Council at the end of November.
Lindsay Green, trust member, said: "The trust has employed a professional fundraiser for a short period to investigate available funding sources, to help us with a business plan and to make an approach to the Heritage Lottery Fund.
"She estimates that funding should be in place at the end of 2014 and we could be on site in early 2015.
"This is very encouraging. The cost of obtaining further soil samples has proved very expensive so the project is to be included in funding applications."
The trust believes the scheme will provide an attractive addition to the town's Country Park and enhance the local area.
It has previously put a display board outlining the project in Whitchurch Heritage Centre.
The trust also said the project was supported by 80 per cent of local people in a survey carried out in preparation for the town and parish plan.
Among those in support of the project include town councillors and members of Whitchurch Chamber of Trade.
Plans to improve the canal by Whitchurch Waterway Trust started in the 1980s in response to the town council's wish to bring it back into the town centre.
The arm was restored in 1993 and has been in constant use since then, providing overnight and longer stay mooring facilities.
The latest scheme initially won the backing of trust members at a meeting held in 2010.
Before the meeting members had five potential schemes to consider, including a multi-million pound water park on the canal arm, which is now dead in the water.
For more details about the project visit www.whitchurchwaterway.org.uk
