Restoration grants for Wilts & Berks and Burslem

The Inland Waterway Association (IWA) today announced awards from its Restoration Grants Fund to the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust and to the Burslem Port Project.

The Wilts & Berks Canal Trust has been awarded £650. The Trust's 50-year-old Fordson Major tractor has been a major advantage to the Trust and other waterway groups, largely by virtue of its tree stump winch. The tractor will also be gainfully employed at IWA's forthcoming National Waterways Festival at Beale Park, Reading. The tractor's tyres, however, have come to the end of their useful life and their replacement, at almost £650, will be covered by this grant.

The second grant has been made to the Burslem Port Project to run a publicity campaign. £1,800 is to be provided to assist in the promotion of the sensitive redevelopment of the area surrounding the Burslem Branch of the Trent & Mersey Canal, as part of a major commercial redevelopment. The Burslem Port Project is at a key stage in its aspiration to see restored navigation as a key element of the proposed commercial development around the former Burslem Branch of the Trent & Mersey Canal. A major publicity and promotion campaign is underway to ensure that the Bakeries site in particular receives appropriate treatment within the scheme. The £1,800 offered by IWA will finance this campaign together with contributions-in-kind from local professionals and a grant from the Hanley Economic Building Society.

Tony Harrison, chairman of the Association's Restoration Committee said "These grants show that there is still a need for restoration groups to access relatively modest sums of money, often at short notice, in order to move their projects on to a stage where they can start to attract the larger funding agencies. The flexibility within IWA's Restoration Grants Fund allows the Association to consider a wide range of restoration-related areas, beyond some of the more conventional construction and rebuilding schemes, and we hope that these two awards will attract other groups to submit applications that might help to advance their schemes' advancement."