Canal future put in doubt

A man who has spent nearly 40 years trying to restore a 33-mile waterway between Grantham and Nottingham fears it will never reopen if the dualling of the A46 goes ahead.

Mr Martin Day (61) of The Paddock, Bingham, said although he welcomed the dualling, it could mark the end of Grantham Canal Society’s project to restore the Grantham Canal to its former glory.

The canal opened in 1796 but has been unused since the mid-1930s.

The Grantham Canal Society, of which Mr Day is a member, wants to reopen the waterway to the public and has been campaigning for its preservation.

Mr Day said the canal had become blocked with weeds over the years because there were no boats to break them down with their propellers.

The problem has steadily worsened since the 1960s when an old humpbacked bridge, known as Mann’s Bridge, at Stragglethorpe, was replaced with a culvert.

Mr Day said the canal now looked more like a ditch.

As part of the dualling, he said the Stragglethorpe road would pass under the new A46 and, because of new EU regulations regarding gradients, there would not be enough room to rebuild the bridge.

Mr Day said: “To build a new bridge while in the planning stage is a simple matter of altering positions on the diagram.

“If they refuse, it is the death-knell for the canal because what was starting to be a major push to finally get the rest of the canal and the reconnection to the Trent complete looks like being totally ruined.”

He said a great deal of work and money had been spent on dredging parts of the canal, cutting back trees and restoring three locks.

Mr Day said: “The main purpose of the project is to show everyone that a canal, not a ditch, is there and to show them that one day they could either be spending a very pleasant boating holiday passing under the bridge.

“We only have one chance to do this and if we fail our children and theirs to come will never be able to travel on a restored waterway so beautiful as this.”