A ‘missing mile’ of canal near Stroud which has been closed for half a century will be restored.

Gloucestershire County Councillors have unanimously approved proposals to restore the Stroudwater canal with two new highway bridges and a towpath by the A38/A419.

Part of the Stroudwater Navigation was destroyed when the A38/A419 roundabout and M5 were built in the late 1960s, to the west of Stonehouse.

A £4million grant from Highways England for the restoration was announced in May which will see waterway, locks, bridges and wetlands built.

It is part of an ongoing £23million project to reconnect the Cotswold Canals System to the national canal network.

A report presented to cabinet on Wednesday said the works will help reconnect the canal from Saul Junction to Stonehouse and provide new safe and segregated walking and cycling routes, as well as environmental improvements.

A five-mile section of canal between Thrupp and Stonehouse has already been restored.

The Cotswold Canals Trust aims to restore it as a fully-navigable route from the River Severn to the River Thames.

The “missing mile” at Junction 13 of the M5 forms part of the larger four-mile-long project, Cotswold Canals Connected.

This was awarded a Stage 1 National Lottery Heritage Fund (HF) grant in 2018 to prepare surveys, detailed designs, costings and project plans.

A Stage 2 grant application will be prepared in autumn this year. The overall project cost is estimated to be £23.4million.

Success of the application is partly dependent on raising the outstanding “funding gap” of more than £1million.