Abstract

Note the new date, now Wednesday 17th September. We are looking into holding the event on a boat! Details to follow.

The Bedford and Milton Keynes Partnership plans to build a new 16-mile canal to connect the Grand Union Canal at Milton Keynes to the River Great Ouse at Bedford at an estimated cost of £170 million. The project is supported by British Waterways, the Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Trust, other waterways campaign groups, and also local councils. The first element of the canal is an underpass under the A421 , completed in 2009 and efforts are continuing to obtain funding to complete the scheme in ‘bite-size chunks’. The new waterway would create a new cruising ring connecting through from the Grand Union to the waterways of East Anglia which are beneficial to leisure cruising as boat hirers are able to take circular routes. The project was first discussed in 1810 when its promoters included Samuel Whitbread. From Milton Keynes, the canal is planned to pass beneath the M1 utilising an existing cattle creep, then cross over Brogborough Hill, and across the Marston Vale through to the River Great Ouse at Kempston.