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The Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway:
No longer just an idea but reality
Destination Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway
Walking the walk
“Destination Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway – making it
a place people will want to visit. That’s the benchmark. We have progressed
from an idea that might happen to an idea that can happen.”
So said Jane Wolfson, chair of the B&MK Waterway Trust, at its annual general
meeting in Newport Pagnell (Thursday, 14th May 2009).
The 26km waterway is the missing link between the Grand Union Canal in Milton
Keynes and the Great Ouse in Bedford. This would allow navigation from the North
Sea to the Severn, revitalising communities along the route. The vision for the
new waterway is to create a series of waterway parks between Milton Keynes and
Bedford.
An economic impact assessment of the proposal has found that over a ten-year
period visitors to the waterway and linked facilities could pump £265 million
into the local economy, whilst “place-shaping” and attracting additional
economic activity could generate as much as £97 million to £373 million
over the same period.
Jane said there had been great strides forward for the project in the way the
Trust had been able to influence politicians at local, regional and national
level. Among the priorities for this year is the creation of two showcase sections:
• Making the hidden gem that is the Grand Union Canal in Milton Keynes the
catalyst for transforming Willen Lake and the surrounding area. The Trust and
its local partners, including the MK Parks Trust, are working on plans to move
the previously proposed route of the waterway northwards to the centre of the
Newlands grid square, creating a dramatic section running from the Grand Union
at the head of Campbell Park into the lake via a deep feature lock – possibly
the deepest inland lock in England and potentially the next “big thing” for
Milton Keynes.
• Another showcase section in Marston Vale between Stewartby Lake and Berry
Wood which would extend the leisure options at the Forest Centre. At this point
the new A421 dual carriageway is being built on embankment for much of its length
and earth can be sourced by excavating the waterway.
It is hoped that by November the first new structure specifically for the waterway
will have been built – a 30 metre concrete culvert incorporated into the
A421 as the result of £250,000 provided through Government Growth Area
Funds.
The meeting also heard from Mary Powell, the driving force behind tourism
in Lincolnshire, where she has successfully bid for £16 million funding for
projects linked to the county and Fenland waterways, which will eventually be
accessible from the B&MK waterway.
Walking the walk
Nearly one hundred people joined the “Walk the Route” event (Saturday,
9th May 2009) along a five mile section of the proposed waterway, covering 500
miles between them!
Starting at the Parks Trust Pavilion in Campbell Park grown ups, children and
dogs strode out along the Grand Union Canal to the cablestay bridge over Broughton
Brook, returning via Willen Lake. The walkers were divided into groups, each
with a guide to explain how the waterway will take shape.
There was an exhibition at the Pavilion throughout the event, which recruited
new members to the Trust.
Jane Wolfson, Trust chair, who led one of the groups commented: “It was
one of the best turnouts for this annual event, which reflects what the waterway
is all about – linking communities and creating safe, sustainable and appealing
environments along a ‘green corridor’. The waterway is happening
because people want it to. It is a real grass roots concept that is clearly on
the radar of planners, politicians and developers.”
