Trench water-fare (From Stroud News and Journal)

Trench water-fare

RESIDENTS are furious about what they see as the premature digging of a new section of the canal right on their doorstep.

The stretch of the canal is to be dug along a strip of grass in Ebley's Frome Gardens and has sparked protest from those living in the street.

Angry resident Graham Stanley said children regularly played on the grass and a canal-sized trench was not only going to spoil their fun but would be a health and safety risk.

"I know that the canal is going to be done and if this was the last link before it was completed I wouldn't have a problem," he said.

"But what we're going to end up with is a big hole right in front of our gardens that's just going to be left there all summer."

He claimed the fencing being put up around the site was inadequate and would not stop people getting into the area.

An easily-accessible footpath runs between the River Frome and the planned canal and Mr Stanley was worried children would use it to get to the trench.

On Friday protesting residents stopped contractors in their tracks, saying they would not let them get to work until better fencing was up.

Residents kept a watch on the site over the weekend to make sure work did not begin and on Monday morning Mr Stanley stood in the path of the excavator until asked to step aside by police.

He says he plans to keep up the protest until developers see sense.

"There are other, more difficult bits of the canal that should be done first," he said.

"They should do this at the end when they are finishing it off." Neville Nelder, chairman of the Company of Proprietors of the Stroudwater Canal which owns the grassy strip, said the digging would go ahead as planned.

"The developer is doing this as part of a planning agreement and is obliged to do it now," he said.

"In the ideal world the restoration would start at the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal and progress eastwards but life isn't like that."

He said the contractor was under also under an obligation to ensure health and safety standards were maintained while work went ahead.