Future
Fortunately, much of the line of the former canal remained intact, and there are now plans to re-open it as an amenity canal; these plans have the support of the local authorities. However, the problems of restoring this canal are far more challenging than those of restoring the Stockport Branch Canal. Not only is it suffering from the effects of mining subsidence but also its line has been severed twice by the Manchester ring road, which would require the construction of aqueducts to cross it. Another aqueduct would also be required to replace one across a railway that was demolished some time ago. The line up to Hollinwood Basin could not be restored because buildings now obstruct it but there are plans to connect the rest of it to the Rochdale Canal by means of a short new canal from just below the site of lock 23. Such a link was originally planned in 1792, but never constructed.
The first part of the restoration has started, with a £100 Million redevelopment scheme for Droylsden including housing, flats, restaurants, shops and offices, centred around a new marina which is connected to the line of the canal, and which was opened in September 2008. About 190 yds (175m) of canal from the junction with the Ashton Canal have been refurbished, and new waterside facilities for boaters are available near lock 18. The original plans would have blocked further restoration of the canal, but were changed after representations were made by the Hollinwood Canal Society, and the canal will now pass under a building which will span the route.
Read more about this topic: Hollinwood Branch Canal
Famous quotes containing the word future:
“The moments of the past do not remain still; they retain in our memory the motion which drew them towards the future, towards a future which has itself become the past, and draw us on in their train.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“The past is of no importance. The present is of no importance. It is with the future that we have to deal. For the past is what man should not have been. The present is what man ought not to be. The future is what artists are.
The facts: nothing matters but the facts: worship of the facts leads to everything, to happiness first of all and then to wealth.”
—Edmond De Goncourt (1822–1896)
“Our system of government, in spite of Vietnam, Cambodia, CIA, Watergate, is still the best system of government on earth. And the greatest resource of all are the 215 million Americans who still have within us the strength, the character, the intelligence, the experience, the patriotism, the idealism, the compassion, the sense of brotherhood on which we can rely in the future to restore the greatness to our country.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)