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The Bedford and Milton Keynes Waterway (B&MK) Project
Outgrows Charity’s Resources -
Consortium To Take Over
Negotiations are underway for the Bedford and Milton Keynes Waterway Trust
(B&MK) to hand over responsibility for driving the project to a consortium
of local councils and agencies.
The Trust will be a founder member of the consortium
and maintain its core role as a campaigning and community involvement body.
“As the project moves forward different organisational structures are
required,” said Trust chair, Jane Wolfson. “The project has made
tremendous strides but it has grown and matured beyond the capabilities of a
single charitable trust. The time is right for our partners to share the lead
in delivering the waterway.”
Under the Trust’s leadership, working closely with partners, planning
permission has been secured on a quarter of the route in Milton Keynes, and the
entire stretch of the 26km missing link between the Grand Union Canal at Milton
Keynes to the River Great Ouse at Kempston is protected in local and regional
plans.
The first funded structure – an underpass beneath the new duelled A421
near Stewartby – was completed this autumn. Over £2m has been raised
and invested by partners since 2001.
David Hackforth, Chief Planner (Special Projects) at Milton Keynes Council,
is liaising with partners to set up the B&MK consortium. “It is closely
modelled on the well-established east-west Cambridge to Oxford rail consortium
and is designed to ensure that key partners work effectively together to progress
the project,” he said.
The waterway – the first major new-build project of its kind this century – will
create a green corridor linking local communities along the route. Together with
traditional canal facilities, the waterway and multi-user path network will be
engineered to include water management and flood alleviation, low carbon transport
for passengers and freight, plus a multitude of leisure and tourism activities
centred on locks and dramatic boat lifts.
Prospective Founding Members of the Consortium
• Bedford Borough Council
• Central Bedfordshire Council
• Milton Keynes Council
• Environment Agency
• British Waterways
• Renaissance Bedford
• Milton Keynes Partnership
• Milton Keynes Parks Trust
• Marston Vale Forest Trust
• Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Trust
Terms of reference for the new consortium are to secure the route, undertake
preliminary planning and design and obtain planning permissions as pre-requisites
to the delivery of the waterway via the creation of a “single purpose vehicle” delivery
agency. When complete, the waterway will pass into the care of consortium members
funded to maintain it in perpetuity.
