Chesterfield Canal threatened by Government incompetence?

On Saturday 18th November, as last year, I attended the launch event of this year's Santa Special on Chesterfield Canal at Tapton Lock. Great fun for children who in the run up to Christmas can meet Santa while having a canal boat trip. But also a good fund raiser for the fantastic team of volunteers who have given up so much of their time to reopen the canal.

In 1979 I lived on Muirfield Close at Tapton, overlooking what at that time was a stagnant ditch but had once been a canal. With a colleague I wrote teaching materials about the canal and walked school groups down its derelict remains. At weekends I walked along it - I even used to try and run down the overgrown towpath when training for marathons (yes this was a long time ago!), but was often defeated by the undergrowth.

In later years I was one of those Chesterfield Borough Councillors who argued AGAINST a County Council plan to put the canal into an underground culvert pipe so that the Brimington - Staveley bypass could be more easily built over it (remember the Brimington bypass, repeatedly promised but never built?). The County since that time have seen the light and are now committed supporters of the Canal Society.

Since those early days the canal has been lovingly restored and reopened for much of its length and is now an attractive and popular recreational area in the heart of Chesterfield. Plans are well advanced for completing the link up to the national canal network and on the old Lavers site in Chesterfield an exciting scheme is about to be put into practice to create a new marina or canal basin at the heart of a new office/residential/shopping area.

All this is down to a group of dedicated volunteers in the canal society who had the vision and belief to turn a stagnant ditch into a linear green lung which is now an important part of revitalising a derelict industrial area of Chesterfield.

What a kick in the teeth then that the Labour Government has suddenly and short-sightedly slashed the budget for British Waterways. This was to make up for the incompetence of David Milibands department who failed to pay farmers their grants on time. I wrote to DEFRA (the responsible Department) on 7th November and on the 25th received a bland reply assuring me that there was not a problem! All those involved with canal restoration and maintenance across the country however fear otherwise as a sudden £7.1million CUT in funding can only have a negative effect.

The battle continues and as always I will use Parliament to support these magnificent local efforts against Government incompetence and short-sightedness.