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ENews 2008-19 |
| Issue Date: Jun 27 2008 |
Good evening everybody;
I have just received a copy of Stroud District Council's recent Press Release and thought you would appreciate sight of it :-
STATEMENT 26 June 2008
Canal regeneration investment within our grasp
At the Council meeting held at 7pm on Thursday 26th June 2008, Councillor Nigel Studdert-Kennedy, Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Tourism for Stroud District Council, made the following announcement.
Thanks to the efforts and hard work of a good many people, many well known in the community and beyond, the project to restore the Cotswold Canals has received a major boost. The Heritage Lottery Fund today announced its confirmation, subject to certain conditions, of the award of £11.924 million - which was first awarded to the project in 2006. This is fantastic news for the Stroud District and for the negotiating team.
HLF has accepted our business plan for restoring the canal between Stonehouse and Brimscombe and placed its faith in our ability to lead the project with support from the Cotswold Canals Trust. We need to ascertain the precise conditions attached to the award and it is expected that an official letter containing these will be received within a couple of weeks.
This is a huge outside investment into the district, with the potential to ultimately bring economic, environmental, heritage, wildlife and leisure benefits to the district as a whole.
It will be necessary to have a full understanding of the terms together with answers to questions already posed before calling a further full meeting of Council. This further meeting will be called to make a final decision on the issues identified at the Special Council Meeting on 5th June 2008.
Now that we have the conditional backing of the HLF grant it is time for rolling up our sleeves and sorting out the outstanding issues so that when we next meet we can be assured that a decision to proceed with the project would be taken in the full knowledge of the known facts. It is also time for the work that has been waiting upon the decision from the HLF to proceed with all despatch - full steam ahead!
(Ends)
There you have it - some really good news at last!
David Pagett
Postmaster
