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River Soar & Grand Union Canal Partnership

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River Soar & Grand Union Canal Partnership ) 5 1 0 2 . 1 1 B R ( m a e T t n e m e g a n a M d n a r B & g n i t e k r a M l i c n u o C y t i C r e t s e c i e L y b d e c u d o r P The River Soar and Grand Union Canal Partnership River Soar & Grand Union Canal Partnership If you would like to know more, go to http:/www.leics.gov.uk/index/environment/countryside/environment management/river soar strategy.htm 2016 / 2019 Action Plan 1 Executive Summary Members of the Partnership The River Soar and Grand Union Canal sustainability of the corridor, together with a Chaired by the City Mayor, River Soar and corridor is a fascinating, complex and vibrant strong commitment to partnership working. Grand Union Canal Corridor Partnership thread that weaves its way through the comprises representatives of public county. Its value as a strategic wildlife corridor By carefully protecting and enhancing its authorities, statutory bodies and charitable and its potential for economic regeneration historic environment, and the natural wild and voluntary organisations. It meets regularly has long been recognised, but remains to be habitats that make it special, the River Soar to consider how, by working together, it can fully realised. and Grand Union Canal Partnership can promote the long term regeneration and harness the potential of the waterway to make sustainability of the waterway corridor. Balancing the needs of this living and working it more attractive to visitors, for business landscape is key to the long term success and opportunities and as a place to work and live. 2 3 The CASE STUDIES The The partnership has worked together throughout 2014 and 2015 to meet Waterway many of the objectives within the Action Plan. Some of the achievements of Partnership the partnership are as follows:- The River Soar and Grand Union Canal corridor The River Soar and Grand Union Canal come Bittern Ditch at Watermead flows roughly from south to north through together at Aylestone Meadows Local Nature . S O Country Park. Leicestershire, passing through a fascinating Reserve, creating a canalised river. The river and R L , mix of rural and urban landscapes. In doing so, canal then flow together through the city, s This partnership scheme was funded by m a i l l Leicestershire County Council’s Country Parks it links the urban areas of Market Harborough, characterised by the Mile Straight, a mile long i W Section, the Stepping Stones Partnership Project Oadby and Wigston, Blaby, Leicester and section of engineered waterway, built as part of r e t e and the Leicestershire and Rutland Ornithological P Loughborough to the North with the surrounding a major flood alleviation scheme in the 1880’s. y Society (LROS). The aim of this scheme was to b countryside. n e excavate a water channel through k The northern section of the River Soar runs a t Leicestershire’s largest reedbed at Watermead h The River Soar is a tributary of the River Trent through a shallow-sided valley which forms a p a Country Park to ensure that the reedbed remains r g and is approximately 40 miles long. From its distinct landscape character area, separating o t wet throughout the year to the benefit of aquatic o the rocky uplands of the Charnwood Forest to h source at Smockington Hollow on the P life and species such as Bitterns (winter visitor at . d Warwickshire border, the Soar Brook heads the west from the rolling farmland of High r present), Grey Herons (heronry close by), a o b north-east, changing its name to the River Soar. Leicestershire to the east. This section of the Kingfishers, Little Egrets, Water Rails, Cetti's e v i t Warblers and Otters (now regularly seen in the valley has always been an important a t e r River Soar next to the site). The channel was The Leicester section of the Grand Union Canal communications corridor and now contains the p r e t constructed in such a way as to provide good A6, the main Leicester to Nottingham Railway n starts at Norton Junction, passing through i viewpoints for the public in order to provide a w Watford Locks, Crick and Welford Junction and the river itself. The Loughborough e n chance of seeing species that are generally h t before reaching the famous Foxton Locks, navigation completes the remaining 9 miles of i w otherwise very elusive. The channel connects the l where a branch canal goes off to Market the Soar to finally join the River Trent at Red Hill. e n far reaches of the reed bed with the Crake Pool n Harborough. The canal passes close to a a h thus spreading the available water more evenly C number of small villages heading north into n r through the reed bed. This in turn helps to e t t rolling open countryside. The stretch from i maintain the health of a significant reedbed site in B d Leicestershire, which is an important habitat Market Harborough to Kilby Bridge is a e m identified in the Leicestershire Biodiversity Action designated as a Conservation Area. r e t a Plan and subject to a specific Habitat Action Plan W e (HAP). h T 4 1 5 Leicestershire Waterways Portal Following an audit of how easy it was for people to find out about the local waterways, it was agreed that a new ‘portal’ would be developed to signpost people to sources of the most appropriate information. Leicester Shire Promotions worked with group members to develop the ‘Waterways in Leicester and Leicestershire’ site which can be reached using the following address: The site provides an introduction to the waterways and enables access to comprehensive listings of businesses, leisure pursuits, walks, rides and volunteering Michael Jeeves Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust opportunities. Each organisation that is a member of the partnership also has a link through to their own site which will help to drive more traffic. Cossington Meadows fish refuge Partners are now working to improve the quality of the The Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust pool connected to the river. the Wildlife Trust, Leicestershire and Rutland listings for waterways events as the portal continues to acquired several areas of land alongside the l A large, shallow pool or ‘scape’ that shrinks Ornithological Society and Leicestershire develop. river and in late 2014 it carried out work at its in the summer to expose mud for birds to County Council Stepping Stones Project. Cossington Meadows nature reserve to benefit feed on and plants to grow on. spawning fish and other wildlife. The two features straddle a brook and can be The total cost of the project was £60,000 and viewed from a footpath along the river bank. There were two elements to this project: the majority of the funding came from the Illustrated information boards have been l A fish refuge, consisting of a large elongated Environment Agency. Other contributors were provided. 61 7 River Soar Flood Alleviation Scheme The Environment Agency and Leicester City Council have worked together to secure £7m funding for a scheme to reduce the risk of flooding to approximately 4,700 properties in Leicester, through improvements to green infrastructure. This includes the creation of over 1 hectare of new wetland habitat in an urban environment alongside the river and the transformation of public open spaces. Additional benefits will be realised by linking the construction programme to the Local Growth Funding secured through the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership, delivering improvements to cycle routes, improving the Riverside Cycleway Green Route 1 landscape and encouraging recreational activity along the river. The County Council with support from Sustrans follows the River Soar and Grand Union Canal Country Park and into the heart of the city. and the Big Lottery worked with the City Council south from Cossington, with links to Syston, to develop a cycle and walking route which Birstall and Thurmaston, through Watermead 81 1 9 2016/19 Action Plan This Action Plan represents the next strategy for the Waterway as it passes phase of our strategy and Action Plan for through the county. the next three year period. This will give partners the opportunity to develop The action plan is a working document projects, look forward and plan resources and will be regularly reviewed and effectively. This new action plan covers updated to reflect the changing needs of three core themes : the waterway corridor. • The Partnership: profile and resources If you would like further information on the • Improving the natural and built River Soar and Grand Union Canal environment Partnership, go to: • Promoting the waterway www.leicestershirewaterways.com. This Action Plan builds on the original 2009 Waterway strategy and 2014/15 http://www.leics.gov.uk/index/environm strategy and action plan update. It aims to ent/countryside/environment_managem provide a framework for the partnership to ent/river_soar_strategy.htm maximise the positive economic, social Photograph by Jon Vann and environmental benefits that the River The original 2009 Strategy is available at : Soar and Grand Union Canal Corridor and http://www.thewaterwaystrust.org.uk/m River Soar corridor can bring to the Photograph by Jon Vann edia/7333/riversoar.pdf region. The action plan complements the Local Planning frameworks and City environmental improvements Masterplans for development in Leicester, Charnwood, Blaby, Oadby and Wigston Leicester City Council, the Environment Agency and the Canal & River Trust have successfully secured an allocation of £7.5M from the Local and Harborough, providing a unified Growth Fund to deliver a series of access and environmental improvements to the Grand Union Canal and River Soar corridor.
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