STROUDWATER NAVIGATION CONNECTED Regenerating cultural and natural heritage for everyone 2017 Bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund Supporting Document A - PROJECT SUMMARY cultural BUSINESS heritage OPPortunities restoration & DEVELOPMENT natural COMMUNITY heritage engageMENT & conservation education CONTENTS Page Foreword and Project Summary 1 Statements from SDC and CCT 2 Our Heritage Assets 5 Maps 6 A brief history 8 Lessons Learnt from Phase 1A 9 Key Themes 11 Stroudwater Navigation Connected Project Outcomes 11 Why this project, Why now? 17 Case Studies 18 2017 HLF Bid Structure and Financial Summary 29 All photographic images are taken along the Cotswold Canals corridor. All images are original for the Cotswold Canals restoration project. Stroudwater Navigation Connected 1 FOREWORD & PROJECT SUMMARY This report summarises the bid made by a Core Partnership of eight organisations in November 2017, for Heritage Lottery Fund support to complete the restoration of the Stroudwater Navigation, one of the two Cotswold Canals. Stroudwater Navigation Connected is a nationally important canal restoration project. No other canal regeneration project in England has a higher profile or greater support than Stroudwater Navigation Connected. A key part of the lost canal link between the Rivers Severn and Thames and the only non-Canal & River Trust canal in the country to be funded by them, the project will re- connect canal communities to their local heritage and England’s navigable waterways. PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS • 16km of restored canal added to the national navigable waterways network, making Stroud and Stonehouse canal towns once again • Previous investment of £12.7 million by HLF is fully realised • 3 historic bridges, 6 locks and 6km of waterway restored • Key archive documents dating from 1730 conserved and digitised, charting the Industrial Revolution and ‘canal mania’ • Comprehensive inclusive community engagement strategy for people and communities along the whole of the navigation and Gloucester • Over 30 hectares of priority habitats created in one of UK’s largest biodiversity offsetting projects • 700,000 hours of volunteering opportunities developed and supported • 250,000 more walkers, boaters, cyclists on and along the waterways • Monetised health benefits of over £37 million per year • Total community investment of £8 million • £5 million of investment from 4 partners promised • 99% of the community are behind the project • 72,000 people with membership of core partner organisations immediately connected with project • C&RT’s ground breaking and award-winning approach1 to enhancing health and wellbeing is developed • More than £100 million worth of new private investment is attracted to the canal corridor within 5 years of the end of the project. 1 Canal & River Trust (2017) Waterways and Wellbeing: Building the evidence base. First Outcomes Report, September 2017, 2 Stroudwater Navigation Connected LETTER FROM DAVID HAGG, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF STROUD DISTRICT COUNCIL Stroudwater Navigation Connected is the leading national waterway restoration project. In delivering tremendous benefits it meets all HLF outcomes. It also delivers a ‘double whammy’ in terms of unlocking the full potential of Phase 1A, which was completed this month. We have a window of opportunity to deliver the project which will rapidly close – so why now? We have momentum There is no question of having to start to build a project team, create a volunteer corps or garner partner commitment. All this is in place. Indeed, having just successfully completed Phase 1A, the danger of not making an application to HLF now is that we will lose momentum. Based on independent surveys, the level of community support and engagement is at an all time high. We cannot sustain such momentum indefinitely. We have a track record We have successfully completed Phase 1A.. The project has won 12 national and regional awards. It is the leading canal restoration in the country. We are a competent team that brings together 8 core partners across public bodies, voluntary organisations and charities. We deliver within budget and on time. We have the match funding We are asking HLF to make a 42% contribution (£9.8m) towards the £23.4m project. Funding from the public sector partners Stroud District Council and Gloucestershire County Council is available now. But, with the substantial pressures on local government finance, carrying this forward into future years is highly unlikely. Likewise, the demands on the Canal and River Trust, the national charity responsible for the 2,000 mile network across England and Wales, means its financial commitment is not open ended. We are prepared Advanced negotiations and written statements from all landowners mean we are confident that land acquisition will not need compulsory purchase. Planning policies are in place and planning applications prepared. The uncertainties of the Cotswold Canals Trust bid in 2015 have been resolved. The bid now features one of the UK’s largest biodiversity ‘offsetting’ projects and activity plans that ensure people across our community can participate, learn about and enjoy their heritage. Now is the time. David Hagg Chief Executive Stroud District Council (Lead Partner and Accountable Body) Stroudwater Navigation Connected 3 LETTER FROM JIM WHITE, CHAIR OF THE COTSWOLD CANALS TRUST As Chair of The Cotswold Canals Trust (CCT), I am delighted to commend Stroudwater Navigation Connected to the Trustees of the Heritage Lottery Fund. CCT is the Co-lead partner of this innovative and exciting project, sharing the lead role with Stroud District Council, the Accountable Body. CCT is proud to be part of this project’s Core Partnership. Four partners have committed £4,800,000 in cash to the project. Support in kind from all eight partners is worth more than £1,000,000. We are also proud of the outstanding contribution that volunteers will make: more than £3 million worth, in canal restoration, archive conservation, wildlife conservation and project management. The need to secure funding from partners was the first topic in your letter explaining why our 2015 bid was not successful. The second was the need to reduce uncertainty: as a result, we are about to apply for Outline Planning Permission for the Missing Mile, we have taken our negotiations with landowners much further than last time, and have brought forward studies such as Flood Risk Assessment. We have also done significantly more work on community engagement and on making sure that our natural environment plans are integrated with the project as a whole. It is vital that Stroudwater Navigation Connected starts in 2018. A prompt start will keep our trained and experienced volunteer workforce committed and busy; it will maintain community support; it will help control capital costs; it will ensure that we retain funds promised by partners; and it will ensure that the recently restored canal does not suffer from lack of use. I am very grateful to the many people who have given their time, much of it voluntarily, to produce this bid. My thanks are also due to staff in HLF’s Exeter Office for their advice and support. Jim White C. Eng. M.I.Mech.E. Chair of Trustees & Engineering Director Cotswold Canals Trust 4 Stroudwater Navigation Connected OUR HERITAGE ASSETS Two nationally important cultural heritage assets – canal and archive - and a regionally significant wildlife corridor are the focus for the project Cultural Heritage - Stroudwater Navigation The Stroudwater Navigation and the archives of the Company of Proprietors of the Stroudwater Navigation (CoPSN) are critical to understanding our national industrial heritage and the cultural identity of the Stroud Valleys. The Stroudwater Navigation opened in 1779. An early example of a canal funded and built by the wool trade, it was designed and built to enable the ‘Severn Trows’, sailing barges with stepped masts, to pass under very low bridges, reflected in the Canals Trust logo. Its immediate success inspired England’s ‘canal mania’. Cultural Heritage - ARCHIVES From the late 18th century to the early 20th century, the Stroudwater Navigation and the Thames and Severn Canal were strategically important to the national canal network. Decline in traffic led to closure in 1954. In 1987 Stroud District Council once again recognised the importance of the canal corridor, designating it as Industrial Heritage Conservation Area. The CoPSN is the oldest surviving canal company in the world with Archives providing a complete record of the Stroudwater Navigation from 1730 to 1954. They tell how the canal was built, how it brought coal and grain, fuelling the wool industry and bringing the industrial revolution to the Stroud and Thames Valleys. They also record the slow decline of canals during the railway era of the 19th century and into the 20th century. Natural Heritage - WILDLIFE The Corridor of the River Frome and Stroudwater Navigation runs from the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty into the Severn Vale, whose national and international wildlife designations range from Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Special Areas of Conservation, to a Ramsar Site2 and Special Protection Area. The River Frome itself has a series of Key Wildlife Sites, hosting nationally and locally rare and protected species, such as water vole, otter, bats, great crested newts and hazel dormice. Disused canal and low-lying habitats between river and canal are at risk from development and the impact of modern farm practices. 2 A wetland site