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RDA supports canals redevelopment scheme
England’s South West Regional Development Agency has awarded British Waterways – on behalf of the Cotswold Canals Partnership – £575,000 towards feasibility studies on the first phase of restoration of the Cotswolds canals.
The RDA’s funding builds on an existing contribution from the Heritage Lottery Fund of £411,000 and is hoped to be the key to the release of £11.3m of Lottery money.
The £575,000 has been allocated for feasibility studies (£325,000) and creating a master-plan framework for wider economic regeneration in the Stroud area (£250,000).
Katherine West, development manager for the South West RDA said: “While supporting the engineering design work to restore the canal, we are also driving the masterplanning of the land along the canal to ensure that it acts as a catalyst to regenerate the area.”
Andrew Stumpf, British Waterways’ regeneration manager added: “This is vital to enable us to plan the project in detail so that we can submit our second stage bids for £11.3m to the Heritage Lottery Fund and £6m to the South West RDA in August.”
The total project cost of the conservation-led restoration of a six-mile stretch of canal is in the region of £25m. The project is predicted to create a multi-user trail, develop new wildlife habitats, conserve more than 30 historic structures, create 1,200 jobs by 2014, and attract more than 215,000 extra visitor days by 2012.
Additional funds will come from Stroud District Council, the Cotswolds Canal Trust and a variety of other organisations.