Ivo
Established Member
Certainly one of the more unusual and ambitious transport projects out there!
From the Bath Chronicle:
I never thought I would learn of a new canal route any time soon - much less one so close to home. Still, the benefits are there, so why not?
From the Bath Chronicle:
Melksham Link could put town back on the waterway map
A hundred years after it last saw a barge, a West town that once thrived because of its canal links could be put back on the waterway map.
But because the old route of the Wilts & Berks canal, which once joined Bristol and Bath to the Thames, has long since been built over in Melksham, an ambitious planning application has been submitted to councillors in Wiltshire to build a new canal through the centre of the town.
If canal enthusiasts get permission – and raise the money – they say they could create the ‘Melksham Link’ by 2016.
The link would run from the Kennet and Avon Canal at Semington, near Trowbridge, with a new waterway cut in fields near Berryfields, before joining the River Avon to go through the town centre and out into the countryside beyond, towards Lacock and Chippenham, where locks and sections of the canal are already being restored.
Getting the backing of the Environment Agency will be crucial as the river will have to be altered to provide a consistent flow of water.
It would link the town to the national network of canals and, supporters say, provide a massive boost to the local economy and to local tourism.
The plans also reveal that the 57 miles of the former canal, which fell into disrepair back in 1910, will be covered by a new towpath all the way to Abingdon in Oxfordshire, whether the canal itself has been restored or not.
I never thought I would learn of a new canal route any time soon - much less one so close to home. Still, the benefits are there, so why not?