| DEFRA CUTS - Our Canals and Locks at Risk! |
Since their restoration in the 1960s and 70s Marple's Locks and Canals have become a major heritage asset for our town, attracting tourism and bringing great pleasure to visitors and the local community alike.
With the formation of Marple Locks Heritage Society in 2003, firstly to organise the successful 2004 Bicentenary Celebrations, followed by their ongoing efforts to work with British Waterways to preserve and promote Marple's Locks, it would be reasonable to assume that their future was secure.
Until recently that may well have been true but unfortunately Marple's Locks and canals, along with many other canals and waterways across the country, are now at greater risk than they have been for close on 50 years.
The following article, which appeared in the Sunday Telegraph on 1st October explains:
| Hundreds of miles of
canals are facing closure because of a cash crisis sparked by government
"incompetence". The revelation comes days after John Prescott
cited the regeneration of Britain's waterways as one of Labour's major
successes. A reduction in funding to British Waterways from the Department
for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) threatens to end a
renaissance that has seen the UK's navigable canal network increase by 10
per cent in the past decade. British Waterways has had £9.1 million cut
from its agreed grant of £62.5 million for this year. It expects to lose
£60 million over the next five years. The cuts, with vital maintenance
work for this winter cancelled, were instigated after Defra saw its own
budget slashed by £200 million earlier this year in the wake of its
disastrous handling of the revamped farm subsidy scheme. It failed to pay
on time £1.5 billion of European subsidies to UK farmers and landowners. British Waterways, which maintains 2,200 miles of navigable canals and rivers, is now preparing to shelve plans to re-open 60 miles of previously closed waterways in the North-West of England. Job losses are also expected. Eugene Baston, of British Waterways, said: "We are being penalised for Defra's incompetence. If we can't maintain the waterways, we can't keep them open. The network is in the best shape it has been for 150 years, but that is now at risk. "It would a tragedy if it became the second period of decline." In his closing speech to the Labour Party conference in Manchester on Thursday, the Deputy Prime Minister claimed the Government had helped to make "cleaner, greener, safer places" to live. "Take just one small example," he said. "The canals of Manchester and many cities were symbols of urban decline. They have become major engines of urban regeneration." In fact, three of the first canals expected to close — the Rochdale, Peak Forest and Ashton — are in Greater Manchester. A spokesman for Defra said: "We've had to identify savings across the board. We will try to work with British Waterways." |
To
find out more about the problems and to learn what you can do to help, please
visit the Save our
Waterways Campaign web site. This is regularly updated with latest news and
includes instructions about how to write to our local MP, Andrew
Stunnell, the Waterways Minister, Environment Minister and Gordon Brown.
Please don't be complacent. If you value Marple's Locks and Canals please take the time to write to Andrew Stunnell and make sure he understands how important this is to Marple's local community. You can also join Marple Locks Heritage Society at their next open meeting on Tuesday 24th October, 7.30 pm at the Guide Headquarters, Brickbridge Road, when this is sure to be a hot topic!
