Derby Canal - Restoration

Restoration

In view of proposals to abandon the canal, B. A. Mallender, who lived in the locality, asked the fledgling Inland Waterways Association to help mount a campaign for its revival in 1947. The author Tom Rolt made a series of cruises on threatened waterways at this time, but could not obtain permission to navigate the Derby Canal. Rolt took his case to the Ministry of Transport, seeking to invoke the conditions of the Railway and Canal Traffic Act of 1888, but was told that they would not sanction an inspection of the canal, because the company had intimated that they were preparing to restore the waterway. In 1956 a local committee was formed to campaign for restoration. By 1961, Derby Council were actively promoting the infilling of the canal, and so the Inland Waterways Association together with the Derby Canal Restoration Committee wrote to the Derby Evening Telegraph, calling for the canal's restoration. Although the council refused to comment, the letter, which was published on 1 February 1961, caused considerable local debate, and a protest cruise was organised on the Erewash Canal, with the Derby Canal entrance lock as the destination. The Times national newspaper carried details of the event, and a subsequent meeting held on 27 May called for a public enquiry into how best to restore the canal for commercial and amenity use. Despite the campaigns, the company obtained a warrant to abandon the whole canal in 1964.

With the changed economic climate of the 1990s and the success of other restoration schemes, a feasibily study was carried out in 1994. It included detailed plans for restoration, and concluded that the cost for reinstating the 14-mile (23 km) main line would be £17.3 million. In order to make progress, a company called the Derby and Sandiacre Canal Trust was formed, with volunteer input managed by the Derby and Sandiacre Canal Society. In early 1996, construction of the Derby Bypass threatened to sever the line at Swarkestone, although the Department of Transport suggested that a navigable culvert could be provided if the Canal Society paid for it. In 2000, Derby Council assisted the canal trust in applying for a £3.2 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, to create a linear park by restoring the canal from Spondon to Sandiacre, while the canal was identified as one of several projects which British Waterways thought they could assist, at its annual general meeting held in 2001.

By mid-2003, the canal trust has succeeded in getting the whole route of the canal protected by inclusion in the local authority structure plans. By this time, the estimated cost of restoration had risen to £34 million, but they launched a major initiative to raise the funding over a 10-year period. Grants from the Derbyshire City Partnership received from 2008 enabled the Trust Development Group to begin the process of applying for outline planning permission for reinstatement. The route of the canal passes through three local authority regions, and so separate applications had to be made to Derby City Council, Erewash Borough Council and South Derbyshire District Council. All three applications had been approved by 24 August 2011, paving the way for actual reinstatement to begin, subject to the necessary funding being available. The restoration plans do not include reinstatement of a level crossing of the River Derwent. The site of the original crossing has been lost to development, and there would be issues with water supply and flood risk associated with a crossing on the level. An innovative solution has been suggested in the form of the Derby Arm, which would transport a caisson containing water and a boat in a semi-circular arc from one side of the river to the other. Its design is similar to a medieval trebuchet.