Grants awarded for Wendover Canal project
DACORUM Borough Council has worked with Tring Town Council to award grants to Wendover Canal Trust for canal restoration.
It has given £135,000, while Tring Town Council gave £20,000, towards a project to remove waste from Wendover Canal, which will later enable it to be relined and rewatered. The grants have been matched with a legacy from a former resident of Little Tring.
The restoration project includes the removal of 5500cu m of household waste. This was tipped for 10 years from 1918 to 1928 into the closed canal at Little Tring by the then Tring Urban District Council.
Tip waste consists mainly of ash and stretches for 270m and is one of the final barriers to rewatering the Wendover Canal; its removal will be a significant milestone. It will also allow the re-opening of the towpath through the area currently containing the waste, avoiding the need for walkers, runners and cyclists to divert down the busy Little Tring Road.
For the first time in 100 years, there will be a continuous towpath from the Grand Union Canal to Wendover.
Wendover Canal Trust chairman Clive Johnson said: “We’ve been worrying for so many years how we could afford to safely and legally dispose of this waste blocking the canal and I am looking forward to it being taken away this summer.
“I am really pleased that Dacorum Borough Council has been able to help us clear this barrier to local people enjoying this historic canal.”