Help bring Big Lottery Funding to the canals

Connect2

Seventy nine communities around the UK, including Banbury, would benefit from the sustainable transport charity Sustrans winning the £50 million grant in the Big Lottery Fund’s: The People’s £50 Million contest in December. Connect2 would build bridges, foot and cycle paths, and even reinstate a ferry, giving people easier and healthier access to their schools, workplaces, shops, parks and countryside. Connect2 is competing against three other organisations, with the winner being decided by public vote.

Healthy living by the canal

The Banbury Canal Links project links the town centre and train station, via the canal, to the present and future residents at Bankside and College Fields with an off road, traffic free route for walking and cycling. This route intends to promote healthy living, reduce traffic congestion and make the canal accessible for everyone. A steering group has been set up, chaired by Cllr Ian Hudspeth of Oxfordshire County Council and with representatives from: British Waterways (lead partner), Sustrans, Banbury Town Council. The Inland Waterways Association, Banbury Chamber of Commerce, Cherwell District Council and Chiltern Railways.

Broadcaster Jon Snow (Channel 4 News) says, “I’m backing Sustrans’ Connect2 Lottery bid to bring good news to the UK’s pedestrians and cyclists. Connect2 will make a real difference to communities across the UK, giving more people, including schoolchildren and commuters, the chance to travel in ways which benefit their health and the environment.”

TV presenter Lorraine Kelly is leading the Connect2 bid, along with former minister Charles Clarke. Connect2 is also supported by author Bill Bryson, designer Wayne Hemingway and actor Alistair McGowan, among others.

The Black Country Urban Park

The Black Country Urban Park is set to become a dynamic and desirable place in which to live, work, invest and visit. With the area’s canals as the backbone, the project will focus on sweeping environmental transformation, integrate natural and urban environments and realise the potential of the area’s natural, built and historic assets.

Improving five canals

The bid includes significant improvements along five canals in the Midlands to transform the canal corridors, three new bridges to link communities, and new moorings and visitor facilities to encourage canal users to stop and visit the city of Wolverhampton.

Six principal sites will be directly improved with the project - the Bradley Arm (Wednesbury Oak Loop), the Birmingham Canal, Wyrley and Essington Canal, Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, Shropshire Union Canal and Wolverhampton Locks.

Further waterway restoration associated with the bid will also include opening up Dudley’s spectacular Seven Sisters mines and the underground canal tunnels leading to them.

TV personality Toyah Wilcox is backing the bid.

How to vote

Log on to the People's £50 million giveaway website. Internet voting started on Monday 26 November and closes at 12 noon on Monday 10 December.
Each of the bids will be highlighted in programmes on ITV1 in the week commencing 3 December. Sustrans’ Connect2 will be featured on 4 December. The winner will be announced on 12 December.