Skip the primary navigation if you do not want to read it as the next section.
Skip the main content if you do not want to read it as the next section.
(Line of intended new waterway in various ownerships)
This proposed new twenty-mile broad waterway is planned to connect the Great Ouse at Bedford to the Grand Union Canal at Milton Keynes. Samuel Whitbread, Brewer and MP for Bedford, first proposed the link in 1810, but failed to gain sufficient support then and a latter attempt in 1892 also failed. The idea was revived in the mid- 1990's. The canal is being promoted as the core of a linear water park for all users by a partnership led by Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Trust and including all the local councils, IWA, BW, Great Ouse Boating Association and EA. Studies have shown that the new waterway could provide great social, economic and environmental benefits across the region, attracting up to 1.5 million visitors, creating up to 530 permanent jobs, 440 temporary construction jobs and bring an extra £7 million into the local economy each year.Outline planning permision together with an application to the Big Lottery Fund for £25 million to finance construction of the link from the Grand Union through a new 6 Km Milton Keynes Waterpark reaching as far as the M1 on the Bedfordshire boundary was made in the summer of 2007.
