Campaign Festival 2009

IWA Press Release: Chesterfield Canal to Host IWA 2009 National Campaign Festival

http://www.chesterfield-canal-trust.org.uk/maps/Canal-map.jpg

IWA Press Release:  Chesterfield Canal to Host IWA 2009 National Campaign Festival

Release Date:   18 June 2008

As part of a continuing focus on events to be held in the East Midlands in 2009, The Inland Waterways Association’s National Campaign Festival for 2009 is to be held at Kiveton Park, near Rotherham, on the summit level of the Chesterfield Canal.

Festival web site : www.kiveton2009.com

The Festival will be held over the Spring Bank Holiday Weekend  23rd - 25th May 2009.

IWA wants to build support for the work of the Chesterfield Canal Partnership in its plans to replace the collapsed Norwood Tunnel with a surface route and thereby reconnect Kiveton Park to those parts of the canal that are  already restored, and the parts of the canal that are currently under restoration in Derbyshire. 

IWA also hopes to spur on the Partnership’s plans for a new navigable link between the Chesterfield Canal and the Sheffield & South Yorkshire Navigation in Rotherham.

The Festival organisers also hope to encourage visiting boaters to use the beautiful Chesterfield Canal and other lesser frequented waterways of the lower Trent.

The Festival location is at the limit of British Waterways’ ownership of the Canal, and within a few yards of Norwood Tunnel whose collapse caused the closure of the Canal beyond this point in 1908. The Festival is being jointly organised by IWA together with the Chesterfield Canal Trust, The Chesterfield Canal Partnership, and the Retford & Worksop Boat Club.

The Chesterfield Canal is one of the county’s earliest canals, and was the last to be designed   by James Brindley.  Within its 46 miles it traverses  widely different urban and rural landscapes and has a wide range of heritage features, many unique to the Chesterfield Canal.

Substantial progress has been made towards full restoration. In addition to the physical works carried out on the ground, there has been major progress on the range of studies required to support a major funding bid. The importance of this canal was confirmed by The Inland Waterways Advisory Council in their December 2006 report, which classes the Chesterfield as being of ‘national importance’ and in ‘Category 1’ (i.e. ready for funding).

John Fletcher, IWA national chairman, said:

‘IWA is delighted to be able to use the Campaign Festival to highlight the work of the Chesterfield Canal Partnership and to help mobilise even further support for a scheme of national importance’.

‘The Chesterfield Canal Society (now the Trust) was formed in 1976 as a result of IWA’s decision to hold its 1977 Campaign Rally in Worksop, which was then the limit of navigation. We are delighted to be able to return and continue our support for the Trust’.

‘Although the aim is to restore the entire canal on as near as is practical to the original line, it is also proposed to create a new length of canal in the Rother valley.  “The Rother Valley Link”, will create a new “North Notts & South Yorkshire Ring”, and thus extend the cruising network within the region and bring a positive increase in visitors and significant economic benefits to North Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and South Yorkshire’.

ENDS

For further information please contact:

Martin Bloomfield, Chesterfield Canal Trust

0114 229 5355     secretary@chesterfield-canal-trust.org.uk.

Festival web site : www.kiveton2009.com

OR

Geraint Coles, Chesterfield Canal Partnership

01246 433186    geraint.coles@derbyshire.gov.uk

Notes for Editors

The Inland Waterways Association

The Inland Waterways Association (IWA) is a registered charity, founded in 1946, which advocates the conservation, use, maintenance, restoration and development of the inland waterways for public benefit.

IWA has about 18,000 members whose interests include boating, towing path walking, industrial archaeology, nature conservation and many other activities associated with the inland waterways.  Information provided by 188 corporate members with their own membership structures has revealed that they, in themselves, have a combined membership of at least 59,500 in support of IWA's voice.

IWA works closely with navigation authorities, other waterway bodies, a wide range of national and local authorities, voluntary, private and public sector organisations to raise funds, lobby for support and encourage public participation in the inland waterways.

More than 500 miles of canals and navigable rivers have been re-opened to public use since the Association was founded in 1946. Currently another 500 miles of derelict inland waterways are the subject of restoration plans.

The Chesterfield Canal Partnership

The Chesterfield Canal Partnership was founded in 1995 and brings together local authorities, the Chesterfield Canal Trust, British Waterways and many other bodies dedicated to the restoration and development of the Chesterfield Canal.  The Partnership exists to  champion and co-ordinate the preservation, restoration and sustainable development of the Chesterfield Canal for its historical, ecological and recreational value and for its potential to attract tourism and business development.

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