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In 1949 concern about the future of the Forth & Clyde Canal was raised as the Fallkirk Locks had all been filled-in and regional planners had recommended closing the whole waterway.
The prospect of the closure of the Forth & Clyde Canal and the southern section of the Oxford Canal occupy the minds of IWA Members in 1954.
In March 1955 the Board of Survey reported and recommended the disposal of 771 miles of waterway including some canals like the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and the Barnsley Canal that had already been abandoned and closed to traffic. These "Group 3" waterways also included the Ashton, Peak Forest, Macclesfield, Bridgwater and Taunton, Chesterfield, Cromford, Dearne and Dove, Erewash, Forth & Clyde, Grand Western, Grantham, Kennet & Avon, Lancaster, Manchester, Bolton & Bury, Monmouthshire & Brecon, Nottingham, Oxford (southern section), Pocklington, Ripon, Llangollen, Montgomery, Stratford-upon-Avon (southern section), Swansea and Edinburgh & Glasgow Union canals as well as the River Witham.
In response IWA advocate a National Waterway Conservancy to look after all our waterways and point out that it is cheaper to restore and use waterways than to eliminate them.
The Bowes Report was published in 1958 and lifted the threat of clousure from most of the canals in Group 3 of Lord Rusholme's Board of Survey. The most prominent exceptions to this being the Forth & Clyde Canal and the Kennet & Avon Canal.
The intention to abandon navigation on the Forth & Clyde Canal was announced in 1961.
The Forth and Clyde Canal Society was formed in 1980 to campaign for the canal's restoration.
The 1990 National Trailboat Rally was held at Falkirk on the Forth & Clyde Canal.
The Millenium Commission anounced a grant of up to £32 million in 1997 for Scotlands Millenium Link to restore the Forth & Clyde and Edinburgh & Glasgow Union canals.
The Forth & Clyde Canal was reopened on the 26 May 2001.
On 21 May 2002 the Queen opened the Falkirk Wheel linking the Forth & Clyde Canal to the Edinburgh & Glasgow Union Canal.
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