Plan to recreate Herefordshire canal under threat, backers claim

The Herefordshire & Gloucestershire Canal Trust managed to recreate a 350-metre stretch on the Gloucestershire side, at Malswick near Newent, earlier this year. But it fears that commitments given on the Herefordshire side may not hold water.

The canal originally ran from the river Severn in Gloucester to Ledbury before being extended to Hereford in 1845 – just before canals were out-competed for commercial use by railways.

The canal's now fragmentary route through Hereford (Image: Herefordshire & Gloucestershire Canal Trust)

“There is water in about a third of it, but only about a kilometre, in Gloucestershire,is navigable,” according to the trust’s membership secretary Terry Higgins, speaking at a short publicly accessible stretch of the canal in Aylestone Park, Hereford.

“A lot of it between Hereford and Ledbury is still there – the problem is ownership,” the trust’s head of engineering Bob Hargreaves added.

A short way west of the park the canal peters out, its route now lying under a head-high spoil heap from housing provider Stonewater’s stalled modular homes development off College Road.

Tony Higgins (left) and Bob Hargreaves of the canal trust, at the strip off Hereford's College Road where the canal is supposed to be reinstated (Image: LDRS)

The strip was to be passed to the trust on the scheme’s completion. But Mr Higgins claimed it would now cost “a couple of million pounds” to have the soil removed and the site landscaped, before even thinking about reinstating the canal.

A Stonewater spokesperson said it is “committed to following the obligations” regarding the site, “including the reinstatement or landscaping of the former canal”.

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At the end of this strip, the entrance to the 440-yard Aylestone Tunnel, which takes the former canal to under the railway line at Old School Road, can just be seen through the vegetation. The trust believes the tunnel remains structurally sound as it is inspected regularly by Network Rail.

But further along it has expressed concern that Hereford’s planned new transport hub at the railway station will get in the way of a promised canal basin near its former city terminus.

Herefordshire Council has a stated policy of protecting the canal route. “But though they are supportive, they have no money or capability for this,” Mr Higgins said. “It’s a low priority for them.”

The canal trust's new stretch of canal at Malswick near Newent, completed this year, shows what can be achieved (Image: Herefordshire & Gloucestershire Canal Trust)

A Herefordshire Council spokesperson said it has since amended the hub plans to accommodate the canal route, and confirmed that the city’s masterplan, currently in development, “outlines a commitment to working with any organisation looking to progress the canal’s restoration”.

Meanwhile Mr Hargreaves claimed there is also a “real risk” that a promised restored section of the canal around Bloor Homes’ large housing development by the Ledbury viaduct, again promised to the trust along with £1 million in funding, “won’t now happen”.

A Bloor Homes spokesperson confirmed the arrangement, but said the terms of the deal “are subject to on-going discussions between the parties”.