REGENERATION OF BRIDGWATER DOCKS

Approval was given at an executive meeting of Sedgemoor District Council in December 2022 to submit the business case for the Bridgwater Docks Regeneration Project to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities for final approval.

A total of £5.2m from the Town’s Fund award to Bridgwater will be spent on the regeneration project, with £4.2m being specifically directed at the docks and the remaining £1m being used to deliver better walking and cycling links in the docks area as part of a growing active travel network.

The district council has said that it intends to replace the pontoons and other infrastructure to provide a “highquality residential and leisure marina community, and a new distinctive feature in the town centre”.

Provided approval is granted by March 2023, the local authority will be able to consult on the detailed designs and secure planning permission by early 2024. Once the work on the Docks has been completed (anticipated for June 2025), the site will be transferred to Bridgwater Town Council as part of the wider reorganisation of local government in Somerset.

IWA fully supports the proposal to transfer the docks’ site to Bridgwater Town Council, once the works funded by the £4.2m Town’s Fund award have been completed. West Country Branch’s volunteer work parties based in Bridgwater continue to work at the docks under an agreement with Somerset County Council. The branch has been campaigning for the regeneration of Bridgwater docks for some years now, and will continue to do so.

2023 Waterway Restoration Conference

The 2023 Waterway Restoration Conference, run by IWA and the Canal & River Trust, will be held in Chesterfield this March. The event will focus on the sustainability of your restoration and explore your journey to operation with keynote speakers from Derbyshire County Council and Chesterfield Canal Trust. We will also be running technical breakout sessions, self-guided tours as well as plenty of time for networking!

Time: 10am – 4pm, Date: 18th March 2023

Location: Winding Wheel Theatre, Chesterfield S41 7SA

Volunteers With Professional Skills

Waterway restoration groups are reminded of the free services offered by IWA’s Honorary Consultant Engineers, Honorary Consultant Planners and the Planning Advisory Panel and Heritage Advisory Panel. These panels of experts exist to provide technical expertise to support waterway restoration projects and assist with other inland waterway campaign work throughout the UK.

We would like to expand the range of services offered. If you have, or know someone who has, professional skills in other areas that could be useful to waterway restoration groups, and you would be prepared to share those skills, please contact Jenny Hodson at IWA’s Head Office (jenny.hodson@waterways. org.uk). We are particularly looking for quantity surveyors, solicitors and people with environmental expertise.