Waterway Restoration
The past decade has seen much work carried out to restore the nation's derelict waterways, with around 200 miles (320km) of waterways now restored and actively used. The voluntary sector plays a vital role in restoration and with key partners, in particular the Heritage Lottery Fund, Defra and Regional Development Agencies in England and Wales, the Scottish Government in Scotland, further progress has been made to expand Britain's inland waterway network.
There are currently more than 100 restoration schemes and development projects supported by canal societies and trusts around the country, of varying sizes and at different stages of completion. We would like to help all of these projects but this is impractical given our limited resources. We have therefore decided to focus our efforts on a number of projects which, in our judgment, are likely to contribute the most to our own waterways (listed below). These may well change over time as new opportunities arise.