Helpers start work to clear up Shrewsbury canal towpath
Campaigners who want to spend millions of pounds bringing a historic stretch of Shropshire's canal network back into use have started work to clear the towpath.
More than 20 members of Shrewsbury and Newport Canals Trust took part in a litter pick along a section of the canal route near Sundorne Road and Lesley Owen Way in Shrewsbury.
The work party spent a day clearing overgrown briers and overhanging tree branches from the towpath to allow wildlife to thrive.
It is all part of ambitious £7 million plans to restore a long tretch of the 200-year-old waterway, which runs from the Buttermarket in Castlefields on towards Uffington.
Trust officials hope the canal could once again become navigable to narrow boats if the scheme goes ahead.
As part of the project several parts of the two-and-a-half mile canal route would need to be refilled with water, including a section by Telford Way which is currently used as a footpath.
Trust chairman Bernie Jones said he hoped the work parties would become more regular as the project progressed.
He said: "The towpath is overgrown with dangerous briers and overhanging tree branches and is despoiled with much litter.
"So the enthusiastic volunteers started by litter picking the whole length from the Telford Way end right through to the A49 road bridge.
"They then cut back undergrowth on the footpath down to the canal from Lesley Owen Way and also started to take the many willow saplings out of the canal bed, as they impede much of the diverse wildlife that lives there.
"This is the first work party that the trust has carried out in Shrewsbury and the fantastic encouragement our volunteers have received from local home owners, members of the public and passing cyclists has made it all worthwhile."
By Catherine Ferris
