Ecotricity funds ‘missing mile’ canal restoration work at Eco Park site

ECOTRICITY is funding restoration work on the initial stage of the Stroudwater Canal’s 'missing mile' project at its Eco Park site.

It has joined forces with Stroud District Council (SDC) to start surveys of the Westfield canal lock (pictured above), which lies to the south side of its 100 acre land near Eastington.

Volunteers from Ecotricity have been on site this morning to help start  phase one of the restoration.

The funding comes ahead of another Heritage Lottery Fund bid later in 2017, which if successful, would help the Cotswold Canal Trust complete the final four miles of the multi-million pound canal project.

This would eventually see the Stroudwater run through Ecotricity’s land, through the Westfield Lock, under the M5 motorway and through the nature reserve on the other side, opening a link to the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal.

The work comes only a few months before SDC’s Development Control Committee is due to make a huge decision on Ecotricity’s colossal planning application for a sports and technology park, and wooden stadium for Forest Green Rovers.

Ecotricity says the canal would be an integral part of Eco Park and stressed its commitment to seeing the project completed.

But critics have raised an eyebrow the timing of the funding. Some see the money towards canal restoration as a powerful deal-sweetener in the Eco Park application.

Dale Vince, Ecotricity founder, said the regeneration of the canal would be “fantastic for Stroud”.

“We will be supporting the funding bid and if it’s successful we’ll be making the land available to restore the ‘missing mile’,” he said.

“It would be great to see the canal project completed, we’d love to see the canal link between Stroud and Gloucester running through Eco Park.”

He confirmed Ecotricity would be providing “a couple of thousand pounds” to the initial restoration of the existing Westfield stone bridge.

SDC Canal Project manager, Dave Marshall, said: “We’re ramping up volunteer led work ahead of the Heritage Lottery Fund bid, so beginning work on Westfield Lock marks a significant development in the canal restoration project.

“We will begin initial investigative work on the lock this week to determine its state of preservation, before we start the restoration work in the spring.”

If the lottery bid is successful, Ecotricity plans to make its land available for the larger restoration project by the CCT.

It is understood the land could be leased to the Trust, but not donated or sold, meaning Ecotricity will retain overall ownership of the land.

Stephen Davies, district councillor for Eastington, said: “It is great Ecotricity are giving this funding and I welcome the work to restore the Westfield Lock. It’s a fantastic contribution.

“However, it would be good to know if they will make this land available to the Canal Trust even if their planning application for Eco Park is refused.

“Of course the canal restoration funding is clearly meant to sweeten the whole thing.

“But this is not going to change anything. Members of SDC’s planning committee will look at the whole application under clear planning criteria.”

Mark Campbell, Eastington Parish councillor and strong critic of Eco Park, said: “The Cotswold Canal Trust has been planning the route through this land for donkey’s years.

“We’ve always known these fields were going to be the site for the canal. This was the idea years before Ecotricity bought it up for their Eco Park proposal. So Ecotricity don’t really have a choice.

“The issue here is whether Stroud District Council want to allow a huge sports and business development on green fields land in the Severn Vale.

“Eco Park will be little benefit for the people of Stroud. This will be for people coming up and down the M5 from Gloucester and Bristol to work and for football matches.

“All it will do for the district is take more businesses out of the town centre, forever change the village of Eastington and clog up the roads.

“It completely defies the Local Plan that the council agreed only a few years ago.”

Phase one of the Westfield Lock restoration project will begin this week with a ‘Time Team’ style scrapes and excavations to determine the layout of the lock.

This will be followed by an assessment of the state of preservation and nature of the damage to the structure, along with setting up fencing around the work site.

The CCT hope to open up the Stroudwater Navigation canal from Stonehouse to Saul.

To do so it has submitted multiple bids to the Heritage Lottery Fund to complete the final four miles of the canal.

A bid for £15 million from the fund was rejected in May 2014. The Trust made another unsuccessful bid in November 2016.

The restoration will include building a new railway bridge, channelling under the motorway and digging a mile of new canal.

SDC has almost completed a six mile section between Stonehouse and Brimscombe Port, but the waterway is currently ‘landlocked’.

It is part of an ongoing project that aims to restore the Stroudwater Navigation and the Thames and Severn Canal, to link the River Severn with the River Thames.

Eco Park would be built on either side of the A419 near Junction 13 of the M5, just half a mile from the village of Eastington.

At 100-acres, it stretches from the motorway down to the edge of Eastington, past Churchend and the service station and up to the hamlet of Westend.

On the southern side of the A419 are the five green fields allocated for the sports complex. This huge area includes plans for a 5000 all-seater stadium for Forest Green Rovers.

Alongside the new stadium, the plans also earmark space for state-of-the-arts sporting facilities, training fields, 4G pitches and a sports science hub.

Then on the other half of the A419 is the Green Technology Hub – which would act as an “enabling development” to the stadium.

The proposal aims to make this area the home for thousands of highly-skilled professional, scientific and technical jobs, both existing and new.

There are also plans for a nature reserve west of the M5.

Since its very conception the plan has faced stern and staunch criticism from a large and growing contingent of people in Eastington and the wider community.

They have raised a raft of issues that the development would bring with it, such as congestion, traffic and infrastructure.

Photos by Cotswold Canal trust