10 August 2015
The 26 mile Macclesfield Canal in Cheshire, managed by the
Canal & River Trust charity, has become the first stretch of
their canal network to achieve the Green Flag Award.
The good news comes in the same month that the charity, the
Canal & River Trust, celebrates its third anniversary of taking
over responsibility for caring for the nation's 2,000 mile network
of canals and navigable rivers from British Waterways.
In their feedback report on the Macclesfield Canal, the judges
stated, "There are perceptible changes in culture within the
Canal & River Trust compared with the British Waterways of a
few years ago. There is a developing sense of a genuine joint
effort between the Trust and the community in looking after the
Macclesfield Canal. The importance of both the built and natural
heritage of the waterways are now high on the Trust's
agenda.
"The Trust is putting much effort into developing community
engagement with the waterways. On the Macclesfield this includes
'Welcome' volunteers and a number of volunteer work groups and
adoption schemes: Manchester & Pennine Waterways leads the
field in developing formal adoption groups."
Richard Parry, Chief Executive of the Canal & River Trust,
congratulated the local team from the Manchester and Pennine
Waterway, who have broken new ground for the Trust.
He said: "This is a fantastic achievement for the Trust and
the Manchester and Pennine Waterway Partnership, and
helps to set new standards of excellence across our entire canal
network. Our aim is to encourage other canals to take up
the challenge now and to seek Green Flag status
via the same rigorous assessment process.
"The Green Flag award embodies our belief that
living waterways transform places and enrich lives. I'm delighted
this independent external validation has confirmed our
success in realising this goal."
For those not familiar with its work, the Canal & River
Trust is the guardian of 2,000 miles of historic waterways across
England and Wales, caring for the nation's third largest collection
of listed structures, as well as museums, archives, and hundreds of
important wildlife sites. Find out more at www.canalrivertrust.org.uk