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Watermead Country Park - Birstall Bridge Opens

Access from the Grand Union Canal this Nature reserve with bird hides by reedbeds. Lakes and woodland walks.

At 11.30 on Friday, 27 November 2009, Children from Riverside Primary joined Ernie White, Cabinet Lead Member for Country Parks, and Lesley Pendleton, Cabinet member for Highways, when they officially opened the bridge at Birstall Lock.

This second bridge is set to make Watermead Country Park more accessible to all visitors. The new bridge at Birstall Lock is the sister bridge to the bridge at Thurmaston Lock, which was installed using a crane barge.

People will be able to cross the new bridge at Birstall Lock (near the White Horse pub) much more easily as it has more gentle approaches. It is similar in design to the new bridge at Thurmaston Lock, which opened in July.

The ramps up to the old bridge were very steep, making it difficult to negotiate for cyclists or parents with buggies and impossible for someone using a wheelchair.

The improvements are part of the £1.4 million Lottery funded Sustrans Connect2 Watermead Country Park project. In December 2007, people across the nation voted Connect2 the winner of a £50 million Big Lottery Fund People’s Millions grant. The initiative is creating new cycling and walking routes, improving local travel in 79 communities throughout the UK.

Over the next five years, Leicestershire County Council will be improving both paths and trails in and around the park and links from surrounding villages and into the city’s well established cycling network. Other improvements will include new crossings at busy roads and alterations to bridges in the park.

Ernie White, Cabinet Lead Member for Country Parks at the County Council, said: “The park is popular with visitors from all over the city and county. We want to make sure that the changes over the next five years will greatly improve accessibility into and around the park for all of these people.”

Patrick Davis, Area Manager for Sustrans, said: “We are delighted to be making this significant step towards completing the scheme in Leicestershire.

“In this era of rising fuel prices and concerns about the health of individuals and our environment, enabling more journeys to be made by foot and bike can only benefit our community.”

The project has been designed and built by Leicestershire County Council. To keep up to date with progress on the Connect2 scheme in Watermead Country Park, visit www.leics.gov.uk/connect2

Notes:

Steelwork was completed by Leicester Fabrications Ltd and joinery and decking by Thoresby Joinery and Building Co.

Lutterworth firm Whitmore’s supplied the timber for the new bridge. The wood is from English Oak trees grown on the Duke of Bedford’s Estate.

Sustrans is the UK’s leading sustainable transport charity. Its vision is a world in which people choose to travel in ways that benefit their health and the environment. It is achieving this through innovative but practical solutions to the UK’s transport challenges.

£50 million Sustrans’ Connect2 is a UK-wide project that will create new cycling and walking routes to improve local travel in 79 communities. Connect2 was awarded its Living Landmarks: The People’s Millions grant after winning a public vote televised on ITV1 in December 2007. Further details are available at www.sustransconnect2.org.uk .

The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004. It was established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.