BEDFORD & MILTON KEYNES June 2008 WATERWAY TRUST Volume 6 No 2

First Structure To Be Built

Next year could see the construction of what will be the first concrete structure to form part of the waterway. The proposed A421 dual carriageway runs from M1 junction 13 to Bedford and crosses the route of the waterway at right angles near Stewartby lake. The elevated road had the poten-tial to cause a major barrier to the development of the waterway but thanks to some careful negotia-tion by the Trust and our partners a major new underpass, in the form of a 30metre long tunnel has now been incorporated into the design of the new road. This exciting development was facilitated by Ren-aissance Bedford who brokered the agreement of the 3 local authorities to unlock £250,000 from the regional Growth Area Fund (GAF) to secure its construction. The Trust’s Senior Implementation Officer, Richard Wood said “£250k is a considerable sum and gets us off to a fantastic start. It represents not only a serious capital investment but an investment of faith in the project and a real endorsement of the fact that we have moved the perception of the wa-terway parks from a pipedream to a deliverable reality. We intend to reward and build on that faith, with the design and specification for the underpass already in the bag and ambitious plans in hand to create a new public access route and cut the chan-nel between Stewartby Lake and Wootton.” An underpass to accommodate walkers and cy-clists was already planned at this point but it would only have been 2.4metres wide. Widening the tun-nel to 9 metres to take the waterway (5m canal + 4m multi-access) is of course a costly exercise but it would be far more expensive to do so after the road is built.

The underpass will:

• Create a multi-user access corridor – (1) waterway; (2) footway; (3) cycleway; including personalised low-power vehi-cles with full disabled access;

• Take Sustrans Route 51 off-road; • Link Marston Vale Forest Centre

Country Park with new settlements at-Wootton;

• Set in place a green access corridor ahead of the creation of the potential Marston Vale eco-town;

• Offset the dualled A421 barrier and link communities (Stewartby, Wootton, Marston Moretaine).

The underpass will be of reinforced concrete and will allow a channel of 1.5m depth. We hope to con-solidate this gesture of faith in the waterway by being able to dig sections of the channel within a similar timeframe to the construction of the dualled A421 and bring the walking/cycling access route element of the scheme into use as soon as possi-ble, but if this doesn’t prove possible in the short term, it will be backfilled until this stretch of the wa-terway can be completed.

Marston Vale Eco-Town Shortlisted

See centre pages for plans showing how it will affect

the waterway

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View From the Chair

Trust 3 year objectives A Strengthen the Trust 1. Branding project to protect the vision 2. Build support from partners, developers, busi

ness 3. Strengthen our Board 4. Communicate the vision & progress more

widely 5. Publications 6. Waymarking 7. Public consultation for 'green list' projects 8. Walks/cycling/runs, activities for kids etc 9. "Festival" events 10. Gain new members through a wide range of

voluntary activities 11. Schools & Colleges - making the Waterway

part of learning locally 12. Public fundraising (legacy & Community

Build) B. Develop the Project Framework 1. Project structure (A-Z; Project Plan; Issues/

Risk Logs; Lessons Learnt) 2. Complete Plan A: B&MK in all local & regional

plans 3. Fundraising for Core Office staff 4. Get exit plan agreed in principle and costed 5. Maintain MK Waterway Park Project Group 6. Set up Bedford and Marston Vale Waterway

Park Project Groups 7. Raise funding for business case studies 8. Raise funding for technical studies and plan-

ning applications 9. Set design & landscape standards for Water-

way and Park 10. Create a Community Build & Landscape

Team 11. Work towards community enterprise to run

trips, education ventures, etc 12. Set up back office support for public fund-

raising C. Start to Fund, Design & Build the 'green'

list & watch the rest

Update June 2008 The Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway is a planned 24km brand new broad waterway set in a green corri-dor from the Grand Union canal in central Milton Keynes to the River Great Ouse in Bedford, and the Fenland Waterways beyond. The Waterway will de-liver sustainable recreational, leisure, economic, envi-ronmental and ‘quality of life’ benefits to inhabitants and visitors alike. Thanks to local partners, the first piece of construc-tion has just been designed and funded – a 30 metre tunnel which will take the Waterway and a multi-user path safely under the new A421 dualling outside Bed-ford. Work starts in 2009-10! Planning We’ve achieved our goal of getting the Waterway into all relevant local plans. The Waterway is in the Milton Keynes local plan and Milton Keynes Partnership Business Plan, and plan-ning permission was secured in June 2007 for the first 6km in Milton Keynes. It is also in the draft East of England Regional Spatial Strategy, Renaissance Bedford’s Infrastructure Plan, and the draft Local Development Frameworks for Bedford and Mid-Bedfordshire. It is also included in the emerging Mil-ton Keynes and Bedfordshire Green Infrastructure plans, and the Environment Agency’s Water Recrea-tion Strategy. Almost all the route is in the hands of local authorities and a few developers, and the Gov-ernment Department for Communities and Local Government has provided a secondee to support work on land ownership and planning at the Bedford end. Technical feasibility/Design British Waterways have created a ‘line and level’ de-sign for the whole route, and an outline design for the first 6km in MK. The Waterway is designed to en-hance flood warning and flood risk management. The road improvements at M1 Junction 13 and A421 dualling provide opportunity for efficient joint develop-ment. Last year the Milton Keynes Waterway Park section of the project was one of just eleven projects rated, after rigorous appraisal, as ‘fundable’ by the BIG Lot-tery. This shows how robust the scheme is. We scored particularly well on sustainability, meeting need, community and stakeholder/partner support and involvement. Stakeholder & Community involvement/Governance The project is driven by the voluntary Trust which acts as an enabler, maximising partner and commu-nity involvement in developing a ‘Waterway for All’ that will be a source of pride now and for generations to come. The Trust works with a 26-strong partner-ship of local authorities, user groups, agencies and sponsors. The partners’ strategy is to construct the Waterway in small sections as opportunities and funding become available, and pass long-term maintenance of the Waterway to partner/s with relevant expertise. In Mil-ton Keynes a Project Group consisting of the Trust, the Council, British Waterways and the MK Parks Trust has been set up, and similar Groups will be set up for Bedford and the Vale.

Fundraising to design and build The total cost of the project is estimated in the region of £180m. Funding is being sought from enabling development and from a range of local, regional and national sources, charities, local businesses, and the public. The project is divided into an A-Z of smaller projects, each of which makes sense on its own.

A new short DVD setting out the business case for the Waterway will be available on our web-site soon – see www.b-mkwaterway.co.uk for all the latest details. Jane Wolfson

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B&MK News

Published by the Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Trust.

Editor…………...........Geoff Wheeler Proof Readers….……Don & Jill Allison Photo enhancement Keith Malone Distribution ……….....Leigh Willows Printed by ……….......Murrays Comments or articles for inclusion in the next edition should be sent to geoffwheeler@talktalk.net

John Bint Appointed To The

B&MK Board

John Bint was formally appointed to the B&MK Board at the AGM in Newport Pagnell on 15th May. John played a key part in the formulation of the BIG Lottery bid as Interim Chief Executive of the Mil-ton Keynes Waterway Park. He is a freelance business strategy/improvement consultant, project/programme manager and interim sales director, and a Milton Keynes Councillor, representing Middleton Ward for the Conservatives. He’s a Board member of the local Internal Drainage Board, a for-mer trustee of MK Childrens Contact Centre and a former school governor.

A-Z plans

Plan Name R A G metres

A Secure the Park in all plans B Grand Union to Willen Lake (SE corner) G 1500 C Atterbury R 1200 D Broughton Brook: channel first G 3300 E Broughton Brook: structures R --- F Wavendon Gateway (Eagle Farm) R 1300 G Eagle Farm to M1 J13 R 3000 H J13 and Ridgmont Bypass R 800 I Prologis site R 1100 J Brogborough Hill to the Lake R 1400 K Brogborough Lake to Forest Centre A 2200 L Forest Centre to Stewartby Lake/A421 G 1900 M Stewartby Lake to new A421 G 1100 N Structure Number One G 50 O Berry Farm Wood G 1000 P ORS and Borough developments G 1500 Q Wootton to Beds CC G 800 R Beds CC to Bedfordia land G 800 S MVT long term lease from Bedfordia G 700 T Engineered road crossing A 100 U R. Ouse junction with B&MK A 700 V Dredge from junction to Prebend St A 3300 W Railway Bridges R --- X Town Lock R --- Y Cardington Lock R --- Z Facilities on the Ouse network R

TOTAL NEW BUILD 24450

Local Authority Traffic light status

Milton Keynes G Green - go!

Mid Beds District Council A Amber - pre-pare!

Beds Borough Council R Stop and watch!

Bedford River Festival

Come and visit our stand on the Bedford waterfront

12 &13 July

See the new route maps and hear all the latest developments

Marston Vale Eco Town

The Marston Vale Eco-town has been shortlisted for Gov-ernment approval. It was one of 15 such schemes across the country and within the next 6 months the Govern-ment will approve up to 10 eco towns to be built. The Marston Vale project stretches from Brogborough to the Forest Centre. It’s de-scribed as ‘An inclusive and self-sustaining community, creat-ing around 15,000 dwellings, a district centre, long term employment opportunities, schools, health and commu-nity facilities’ A major feature is a waterway running through the centre, joining Brogborough and Stewartby Lakes. If approved, the Eco-Town could provide the first section of navigable channel along the B&MK route.

Not everyone is in favour of the scheme however, and It remains to be seen what the level of local opposition is likely to be. One local resident who came on the ‘Walk the Route’ day said ‘Ideally we don’t want The Vale to be developed but realistically we know it will be. If it has to be developed we would much rather see a scheme like the Eco-Town than one that just has wall to wall housing’

Masterplan looking from Brogborough towards Stewartby

Look carefully at the pic-ture from the masterplan below and you will see a narrowboat gliding across the lake.

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Talks We are very pleased to announce that our small band of speakers has recently been increased by the addition of Hilary Goldsmith and Mark Rainer, who live near Cambridge and are already spreading the word in that area and on the River Ouse. We welcome them and look forward to their support. Our best thanks for holding the fort so nobly go to Rodney Evans and David Fowler, with some support from John Hodgson. David is continuing his links with Westfield Middle School and has hopes of visiting other local schools soon. Rodney’s latest talk was on board narrowboat ‘Elizabeth of Glamis’ in Cosgrove where his audience of 20 were from the Southern Canals Association. All members signed the petition and the deputy editor of Canal Boat magazine expressed an interest in writing a major feature on B&MK soon. We send our best wishes to another stalwart, Paul Leech, and wish him a speedy return to good health. We would still be very happy to add new members to the talks team and would welcome requests for talks from any groups/associations. Contact John and Sally Gunning (Talks Organisers) on 01234 305925 for further information.

An unusual venue for a talk Hilary and Mark join the team

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Some 60 or so members and local residents set out to walk 4 miles of the route from Brogborough to the Marston Vale Forest Centre on Sun-day 27th April. This was the third of such walks and means that over the years we have now covered the whole route. The event was superbly organised by Jenny and Andrew Eardley with as-sistance from David Fowler and John & Sally Gunning. Richard Wood no-bly drove the borrowed minibus to take people back to the start. The walk started at Brogborough village hall and took us past the Roundhouse with its association with Oliver Cromwell, before descending Brogborough Hill and through the valley to Lidlington where there was a brief stop for refreshments. On again alongside the railway track we reached The Forest Centre where the B&MK exhibition was on show along with the model of the Brogborough Whirl. Last year, Patrick Hall M.P joined the walk and he fully intended to this year. Unfortunately at very short no-tice he was needed to take part in a BBC Breakfast debate so he sent his apologies via his wife. Patrick has offered to host a fund raising event on July 17th and to invite the water-ways minister, Jonathan Shaw. Thanks to our ‘official’ photographer, Keith Malone for recording the event and supplying these pictures

AGM This year’s AGM was well attended and as part of the formal business a vote of thanks was given to Ian Clifton, the Trust founder chair who retired earlier this year.

After a break for refreshments Pat Willoughby, a di-rector of David Locke Associates, gave an outline of the O+H plans for the Marston Vale Eco Town.

Walk The Route

Ian Clifton receiving a gift from Jane Wolfson

New DVD Launched The Trust’s new DVD was launched at a meeting of the Bedford Business Club on 15th May.

The DVD describes the route and makes the case for businesses to support the project. Trust member David Marks supplied a helicopter for some aerial filming and once again Kevin Whately agreed to be the front man. The DVD features a jigsaw map of the route and after the filming Kevin Whately added his signature. The jigsaw will be auctioned at the fund-raising day planned for July.

The first screening of the DVD

Kevin Whately signs the jigsaw

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B&MK WATERWAY NEWS is published by the Bedford and Milton Keynes Waterway Trust, a non profit-making company limited by guarantee (No.5760839). Registered office 16 Cuthberts Street, Bedford MK40 3JG and a Registered Charity (No.1114294). Contact us at enquiries@b-mkwaterway.co.uk or B&MK Waterway Trust, PO Box 3611, Newport Pagnell, MK16 OXN

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B&MK Goes Far East The Korean Broadcasting Service (KBS) is making an extensive documentary on canals in Britain and Belgium to be broadcast in June. Rodney Evans was interviewed by the producer Bae Tae Hui for 15 minutes on the top of Brogborough Hill. It was a great chance to spread the gospel further afield, explain the project’s benefits and emphasise the strength of support.

- and after Rodney Evans before tea

As a thank you for tak-ing part in the interview, Rodney was presented with a box of ginseng tea bags. It was de-scribed to him as a 7,000 year old rejuve-nating remedy, said to restore youth, and physical and mental energy.