Grants for Wendover Canal Trust Restoration Project

Dacorum Borough Council and Tring Town Council award grants to Wendover Canal Trust for restoration project.

Dacorum Borough Council has worked in partnership with Tring Council to award grants to Wendover Canal Trust for a canal restoration project.

Dacorum Borough Council has given £135,000 and Tring Council has given £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 5,500 cubic metres of household waste. This was tipped for ten years from 1918 – 28 into the closed canal at Little Tring by the then Tring Urban District Council.

The tip waste consists mainly of ash and stretches for 270 metres. It is one of the final barriers to rewatering the Wendover Canal, and 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.

Councillor Graeme Elliot, Portfolio Holder for Corporate Services, said: ‘Dacorum Borough Council is pleased to be able to support this excellent canal restoration project, which when completed will bring a range of biodiversity, health and wellbeing and economic benefits to the area.’

Councillor Christopher Townsend, Chair of Tring Town Council, commented: ‘We have a strong interest in the progress of this magnificent local restoration project, which is staffed entirely by volunteers, and have been pleased to support the removal of the town’s historic household waste from the canal.’

Clive Johnson, Chair of Wendover Canal Trust, 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 have been able to help us clear this barrier to local people enjoying this historic canal.’

Pictured: Stephen Hearn, Cllr Hearn, Clive Johnson, Mikk Bradley and Cllr Elliot