New Planning Application for Daventry Canal

After 5 years of inactivity, Daventry District Council (DDC) finally announced at the beginning of 2016 that it was providing £110,000 for a feasibility study to design a boat-lift for the proposed canal arm. DDC believes that the canal will act as a catalyst for regeneration in the town, with the boat-lift becoming a tourist attraction in its own right.

The announcement of funding for the feasibility study has led to some anti-canal campaigning and protests in the town by certain elements of the local community that are opposed to the canal extension to Daventry. This led to a meeting of DDC in August 2016 at which Labour councillors put forward a motion to halt work on the canal project. In response, Conservative councillors defended the canal, pointing out that it was intended to enhance the town centre, and had been under discussion as part of the Town Centre Vision since 2002. The motion was defeated.

In September 2016 an amended planning application was made for the new canal arm. DDC is seeking detailed planning permission for the 2.6km extension from the Grand Union Canal to the town centre, but not (at this stage) the proposed waterspace development to be sited at the Eastern Way playing fields.

The planning application provides new bridge details, including the replacement of two pedestrian bridges by a road bridge that will still provide pedestrian access over the canal. This reduces the number of planned bridges from 5 to 3. There is also a revised environmental statement.

The proposed course of the canal arm is unchanged from that of the original planning application in 2011. This will skirt the eastern edge of Daventry Country Park, ending in a mooring basin just before the Northern Way underpass next to the iCon Centre.

As presented, the plans provide for a series of locks to lift the canal up to the level of the town. However, should the feasibility study for the boat-lift have a favourable conclusion, then the boat-lift could replace four of the proposed locks.
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The planning application and supporting documents can be viewed on the DDC website at www.daventrydc.gov.uk/planningsearch, under the reference 11/0052/FULWND.