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[27 APR 99] COVENTRY CITY COUNCIL NEWS
Council Continue To Back Canal Regeneration

Coventry City Council has approved further expenditure of almost £110,000 on the city’s canal in an attempt to make the area "an asset to Coventry".

The plans are part of the six year Canal Corridor and Green Space Programme which began in 1995 and includes several initiatives to boost tourism in the city.

Coventry Canal Basin
COVENTRY CANAL BASIN

The main initiatives of the programme have been a Canal Heritage Trail and an Industrial Enhancement Grant Scheme. There have also been a number of Green Space projects allowing community groups to improve their local areas along the canal corridor.

The council believes that the programme will increase the number of visitors to the city centre, as it is expected that when the programme ends in 2001 over 40,000 people would have visited as a result of it.

It is predicted that over the lifetime of the programme over 50 jobs will have been created and a further 60 safeguarded. The scheme will also have involved 30,000 local children in environmental projects.

Finance for the project has been secured through grants from the Single Regeneration Budget and the European Regional Development Funds, as well as the National Lottery and English Partnerships.

The council has also agreed to continue a unique canal clean-up scheme, which has dramatically reduced the number of complaints about litter on the water.

Environmental programme officer Andy Duncan believes the initiative has been a great success. He said:

"Everyone wins all round on this project because the boat which patrols for litter was supplied by British Waterways, the outboard by Courtaulds and it was all painted by local children.

"Therefore all we have to pay for is the petrol for the boat and the labour time for the people that are operating it."

The clean-up is operated by Club Line Cruisers, a Coventry company who build and hire boats, and since its introduction last year has made a significant impact on the state of the canal.

"We used to receive a large number of written and verbal complaints about floating rubbish on the water, but since Club Line has been operating the clean-up boat this has changed," added Duncan.

"In the last year we have had just two complaints and they were both when the boat was actually off the water because of the theft of its outboard motor, so these were actually a testimony to its effectiveness," he concluded.
   

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CWN / Politics / Coventry City Council / 27 Apr 99

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