Row over £300,000 bill to dredge Cromford canal
PLANS for a council to spend £300,000 on dredging a historic canal have sparked a row over whether the money could be better spent elsewhere.
Derbyshire County Council is set to confirm the expenditure when it meets on Wednesday.
This has been welcomed by the Friends of Cromford Canal, which will use part of the newly-cleared waterway to run boat trips for tourists and school parties.
And council deputy leader Simon Spencer said the investment would have long-term economic benefits for the area.
But the council's opposition Labour party has been joined by the Taxpayers' Alliance in criticising the amount set to be spent.
The money is coming from the authority's capital budget – for buildings and major projects – and Labour leader Anne Western said other schemes deserved it.
She said: "The Tories are always saying that they need more money for their schools capital budget.
"And they could also spend the money on improving youth centre buildings, although they are now consulting on selling them."
Robert Oxley, campaign manager for the Taxpayers' Alliance, said the council could "not afford to spend money on unproven projects which would not provide value for taxpayers' money in the foreseeable future".
He added: "£300,000 seems an excessive amount to spend when it means the money cannot be spent on other infrastructure."
Friends chairman Patrick Morriss said he was pleased with the extent of the work planned.
He said the dredging would open a mile-long stretch of canal between Cromford and Leawood pump house.
Mr Morriss said the dredging would probably take place next winter to avoid disturbing animals and insects and said the Friends were targeting Spring 2013 to have their boat running.
He said the group would aim to get a boat that would have been on the canal when it was fully operational, prior to its abandonment in 1944.
This would cost of tens of thousands of pounds, which the Friends would raise themselves.
Mr Spencer said tourism was an integral part of the Derbyshire Dales economy. "The work will enable boats to be run on the canal for the first time in many years," he said.
"Increasing visitor numbers to the area will create jobs and opportunities for local businesses.
"It will have an ecological value too, clearing silt and reed from the central channel of the canal and improving the area around the water for wildlife."
10 Comments
by HughPotter
Monday, January 30 2012, 7:55PM
“When the horse drawn trip boat, that many remember so fondly, used to operate, it carried over 10,000 passengers a year. If we could have such a boat again and if every visitor spent £10 whilst in the area, in three years, we would have had the £300,000 cost of the dredging 'returned' to the area's economy. By the way, did you know that the Cromford Canal is the longest length of canal in England that is designated as part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site?”
by ChrisMorriss
Monday, January 30 2012, 7:32PM
“I often walk the length between Cromford Wharf and the old Lea Wood branch, and it is suprising how many people I talk to fondly remember the old trip boat, which must have ceased operation over 20 years ago!
Back then this stretch was a thriving diverse habitat for wildlife, whereas now the only animals that seem to benefit from the reed clogging are the aggressive Mallard.
An occasional horse-drawn trip boat, or perhaps even a more regular electrically powered boat could only enhance this part of the canal for all users and improve the ecology. It would be a low-impact way of increasing the attractiveness of the area and possibly enhance the (sadly under-utilised) Cromford Mills complex and the High Peak Railway wharf area.”
by Heritage Antiques and Collectables
Monday, January 30 2012, 6:58PM
“The canal has to be dredged as part of the Cromford Canal Management Plan agreed some years ago. The incremental cost of operating a trip boat to the public purse is close to zero, so the benefit of operating a boat is whatever visitors bring in. In the 1980's boat use was about 15 to 20 thousand a year, but visitor numbers and their profile have changed since then and the FCC would anticipate greater numbers. It is totally wrong to say that £300k is being spent to enable boat operation. The boat will be a 'Big Society' contribution to the East Midlands only World Heritage Site”
by nicbarfield
Monday, January 30 2012, 6:41PM
“No argument that a trip boat would generate economic activity but the infrastructure cost required to enable its operation seems to me to be out of scale in terms of the likely benefit to the tourist economy. That's why a transparent cost/benefit analysis needs be made published, to show that investment in this project would reap long-term benefits rather than simply providing a subsidy for a heritage/special interest group to operate a small-scale tourist attraction. To open up the argument, perhaps someone from the FCC might tell us how many people used the earlier trip boats in the 1970s and 1980s? It's one thing to have people saying how lovely it is to see a horse-drawn boat at Cromford once a year on Heritage Weekends; it's quite another to run a trip boat as a seasonal business, providing jobs and covering its costs.”
by Heritage Antiques and Collectables
Monday, January 30 2012, 5:59PM
“Very little major work has been carried out on this section of the Cromford Canal since the Cromford Canal Society ceased work in the late 1980's. A backlog of this sort of work has built up. The canal has to be dredged for other reasons and the Friends of Cromford Canal are not asking for any public money to operate the boat. At least with a boat operating the canal will generate some economic activity.”
by nicbarfield
Monday, January 30 2012, 5:54PM
“When the entire length of the Cromford Canal including bridges and tunnels was constructed in 1790-93, it cost less than £100,000 (against an initial budget of £42,000 - civil engineering overspends are nothing new!). That equates to perhaps £10 million in today's money. £300,000 - or about £170 per yard dredged - does seem an awful lot to throw at a project that, at best, promises to restore limited navigation to a short length of canal, with some marginal economic benefit to the local tourist economy if regular horse-drawn boat trips operate throughout the tourist season. At a time when council spending is capped, with huge pressure on capital reserves and deep cuts in budgets elsewhere, I'd want to see a very convincing cost/benefit analysis before I'd be happy to support this initiative - and I write as a Friend of the Cromford Canal!”
by mikebeggarlee
Monday, January 30 2012, 5:47PM
“Derbyshire County Council, as owners of the length of the Cromford Canal from Cromford to Ambergate, are under an obligation to maintain it.
After years of neglect, the canal is now badly silted and choked with weeds. Unless this proposed dredging programme is carried out, this situation will get worse until there is no water at all, only a smelly ditch, and the aquatic wildlife will die out. Dredging will increase the water flow and improve water quality.
The council have already shown their commitment to restoring the canal to navigation by allocating funds for the repairs to Leawood railway aqueduct. They should certainly be supported in this vital continuation of this policy.
Dredging of this length will also enable a passenger boat to operate, thereby attracting more people to the canal and its environs and encouraging tourism, which is a major factor is this very attractive area of Derbyshire.
Michael Harrison
Horsley Woodhouse”
by johnbarker123
Monday, January 30 2012, 5:29PM
“Thank you D.C.C. this is really fantastic news,we have a canal that has been idel for 50 years and to see a boat on again is wonderful news. This canal should be preseved as a monument to all the people who slaved hard to build the Cromford Canal ,this is part of our heritage.”
by Heritage Antiques and Collectables
Monday, January 30 2012, 5:23PM
“I think that we do not need to lose sight of the fact that under pre-existing plans dating back many years, the Cromford Canal Management Plan being one, that the Cromford canal needs to be dredged irrespective of any navigation use it is put to for ecological and water management reasons. The amount of additional dredging required to operate a boat is minimal and the boat can operate within the existing pre agreed envelope. Indeed many studies show that boat traffic has a certain self-cleansing effect on the water channel, thus alleviating the need for further interventions in the future, very little major work has been carried out on this section of canal until recently for over twenty years and it is beginning to show. The previous trip boat was a popular feature of this section of what is now part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site and will be again to a far wider audience!”
by MikeKelley
Monday, January 30 2012, 4:27PM
“This is wonderful news, and our thanks must go to the Council for being so far sighted. It will be money well spent and allow for educational and tourist boat trips which will bring money into the area. In the past thousands came to see and partake in such events; now it will happen again.”