Project Update – Feb 2021

Fundraising

Giving page – click here

Help Cotswold Canals Connected by joining the hundreds of donors who have chosen to offer their support. Over £23m has been secured to date and it is with great thanks to those who have chosen to support us so far. We ask that others consider joining the restoration efforts and help us raise the remaining funds.

Over £1m is required to complete the restoration and to do this Cotswold Canals Trust has agreed to continue to fundraise for the project partnership. If any member of the public feels able, they will be a welcome addition to the fundraising team, currently 13 volunteers and one paid member of staff.

Despite COVID-19 Cotswold Canals Trust’s Fundraising Team meets once a month using Zoom and together set achievable actions for the following month. Many different methods are supported including:

• Online giving
• Social media
• Trust and Foundation applications
• Presentations
• Membership communications

Please get in touch with Aimee on 01453 752568 to find out how to help, or register as a fundraising volunteer – click here

Engineering

Our new volunteer project managers are now getting up to speed with their projects and making good progress and a regular meeting forum for all project managers has been established.

• Ocean Railway Bridge – click here for separate update
• Interpretation boards have been erected on the towpath to provide information for walkers and locals about the upcoming works and also to provide opportunity for community feedback.
• Discussions are underway with Gloucestershire County Council for the detailed design and delivery of the highway bridge replacement scheme at Walk Bridge.
• Discussions for the pipeline diversion near Occupation Bridge, Whitminster have recommenced and an order is about to be placed to complete this work early in the engineering programme schedule.
• Various areas of tree and scrub will soon be removed to allow for the delivery of the early planned sub-projects, without disturbing nesting birds.
• Requirements and potential suppliers of the new lock gates and paddle gears are being investigated.
• Further investigation works of the existing structures and ground conditions at the three lift bridge locations is being procured.
• Discussions are underway with external providers to allow the preparation of the scope and specifications for the M5 crossing and other aspects of the Missing Mile requiring profession service skills and plant.

Activity Plan / Activity Programme

Across the partnership we are reviewing, cross referencing and consolidating our nine Delivery Plans as per phase one of the Monitoring and Evaluation Project Cycle. Key is collaboration and representing the needs views and expectations of people and communities across all the plans, to feed into the project’s five strategic aims. For each Delivery Plan we are mapping out the next six months’ activities, tasks, indicators and tools.

Each work plan (apart from the management and governance one) now has a dedicated Monitoring and Evaluation section as a specific numbered activity with tasks to carry out over the next 3 to 6 months.

Participation and Inclusion Activities

• We are continuing to review and re-establish links with community groups in the canal corridor and Gloucester
• Recruitment, assessment and referral process and systems designs underway to ensure safe inclusion of under-represented people into volunteering and participation
• Community Mapping – maps currently being developed on My Maps to identify hyperlocal experiences from walking and cycling, food and drink, heritage and agri-tourism. Base maps to be used for developing further visitor experiences with the process currently being adapted to facilitate walking and cycling locally to improve health and wellbeing and exercise on prescription. Interactive online version being explored for use as a community engagement tool – Mapping for Change
• Canal Opportunities List – mapped list of opportunities for the community appropriate for current, medium and longer-term use. Working with the Volunteer Manager to integrate further opportunities and increase potential for volunteer involvement in developing community activities.
• Creating linked calendar to the opportunities available for the different project audiences and ensure events and opportunities are calendared and time lined
• Exercise on Prescription – we are working with the Health and Wellbeing Team at Stroud District Council to support NHS referrals through canal-based activities and opportunities
• Engaged Active Gloucestershire to identify opportunities to work together to develop healthy active lifestyles from Gloucester to Stroud

Community Enterprise and Local Economic Development Activities

• Continued audit of cycling and walking routes between Stroud and Stonehouse, informing design of mapped canal trail experiences
• Online community mapping process underway, for use as baseline analysis for tourism audit for internal and external consultation and input
• Reviewing Canal Rail Trail and Wool and Water Festival 2021 with plans for increased use of technology both on and off towpath, immersive audio and digital media formats, with a focus on Health and Wellbeing outcomes, hyper local and community-created content
• Gloucestershire County Tourism Strategy 2021 – 2025 – we are providing representation for Cotswold Canals Connected and plans for tourism and destination management 2021 – 2023 key focus 2021 hyperlocal experiences and staycation market
• Strike a Light – engagement and planning meeting to develop a series of youth theatre activities exploring the journey from Gloucester to Stroud on the railways and themes around meeting strangers on stations and urban / rural experiences.  Identifying the potential for match funding from Gloucestershire Community Rail partnership through the Cross Country Project Fund 2021 – 22.

Interpretation Activities

• Developing a range of new interpretation and destination experience formats
• 3 more ‘Exhibition 42’ notice boards were installed at Ocean Swing Bridge, Bond’s Mill Bridge, and the A38
• Updated CCC branding guide to include branded framework for publicity outreach material and inserts for exhibition 42
• Creating location based visual and audio experiences brought forward. Urgent focus on Ocean Bridge in anticipation of Network Rail works in May,

Formal and Informal Heritage Learning Activities

• Developing online opportunities and resources to share with canal corridor schools, to explore canal history, science and culture, on the canal, in the classroom and at home, in partnership with the Canal and Rivers Trust
• Continuing to work with Museum in the Park on a three-year plan to prioritise booking dates for community events and projects
• Developing strategies for working with Stonehouse Park Junior School, Stonehouse History Group and St. Cyr’s Church to create and display poems, pictures and stories inspired by The Ocean in the new notice board situated there.

Volunteering Activities

• Dedicated and enlarged Dredging Team meeting monthly to plan and manage future operations.
• Before the lockdown, volunteers were repairing the damaged towpath between Newtown Roving Bridge and The Ocean. This was the result of repairs to the low pressure gas main. Wales & West Utilities helpfully supplied 20 tonnes of material for the repair.
• Approximately 50m of towpath was upgraded between Bond’s Mill and Newtown Roving Bridge to our normal multi-user trail standard.
• For the first time since planning began for CCC / Phase 1B, the recent flooding has indicated where flood protection measures will need to be incorporated, especially near the M5 crossing and NW of the A38 bridges to Whitminster Lock. This will assist in floodbank / towpath design work.
• As a result of water control measures needed at the Ocean Rail Crossing, it has been decided to shift early lock restoration work from Newtown Lock to Blunder Lock
• All volunteering on the canal – both SDC and CCT – is now suspended as a result of the lockdown. The only exception will be to respond to emergencies or when public safety is affected. Volunteers willing to work will be contacted as required.

People & Nature

• The Ecological consultancy tendering process for ecological consultancy services for the duration of the delivery stage is now complete and tenders are being evaluated.
• A citizen science monitoring project led by Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) is on hold temporarily due to COVID-19 restrictions. Once these ease we will be looking for volunteers to assist in the pilot project by collecting and filtering water samples to capture DNA evidence of eels, recording nature’s noises in wetlands and/or listening back and classifying the sound data recorded. This is likely to be focused on watercourses and ponds (including the canal) near to the River Severn around Slimbridge and Stroud.
• The Working with Nature team has been busy writing and providing pictures for boards near the A38 roundabout at Whitminster. The boards will include information on how people can get their photos, stories and memories added to the board for others to read and enjoy.
• Putting up some audio posts that include pre-recorded sections from project staff, volunteers and canal users, that will be updated and changed as the project progresses
• Despite lock down we still have productive volunteers such as local bird expert Brian Bailey making a number of bird boxes which he will keep a careful eye on to see which species use them.
• Now that final tweaks have been made to the canal route we can finish off the calculations that will help the project prove that it will deliver biodiversity net gain. This involves a habitat condition assessment (already completed), GIS analysis to calculate changes to different habitats and then the completion of the Defra Biodiversity Metric (which provides a way of measuring and accounting for biodiversity losses and gains resulting from development or land management change). Once completed the calculations will be submitted to the Environment Bank for independent verification, hopefully in the next month or so
• 10% Biodiversity Net gain is set to become a mandatory requirement for development from 2023 onwards. CCC are proud to be delivering this as part of our commitment to the environment.
• Engineering, ecological enabling works and the Working with Nature programmes have been integrated to ensure we are meeting all our legal obligations in relation to protected species, are working in a structured fashion to achieve maximum environmental gain and to see how we can reduce and limit run-off of sediment and pollutants into the canal.
• Assessing opportunities to carry out some of the environmental work earlier than planned.
• Discussions with key project partners are underway to ensure we are in a position to hit the ground running with the Working with Nature programme once we get permission to start.
• We managed to get in one volunteer work party at Pockett’s Orchard with emergency restorative pruning to keep trees healthy until we can do more work after this current COVID pause.
• Wildlife monitoring continues with camera traps along the canal and surrounding land. So we have beautiful redwings on camera who are likely to be winter visitors from Iceland or Scandinavia, a lot of otter, badger and fox activity as well as a very speedy weasel and a successful early evening fishing trip from a kingfisher. Images are uploaded to Mammal Web, who collate camera trap footage from across the UK to help gain a better understanding of the distribution and abundance of wild mammals. Anyone can become a mammal Web ‘spotter’ and help classify the pictures for both CCC and other UK Projects on the website – click here
• Although recent flooding wasn’t good news for everyone there have been reports of over 2000 gulls of five species, tufted ducks, a merlin and rafts of mallards enjoying the winter flooding
• Winter bat inspections of trees around Walk bridge completed with the survey results helping in the development of the Walk Bridge replacement scheme which is being led by GCC. Planned inspections of some other structures have been delayed by the wet weather
• Ecological consultancy Invitation to Tender is written and ready to be uploaded to the Supplying the South West Portal
• Design work for a series of off-line ditches and ponds at Whitminster is currently under discussion with a number of consultants. This work will help retain some of the wonderfully rich fen/reedbed habitat along this stretch of the canal and will also provide sections of undisturbed standing open water which will be valuable habitat for dragonflies and damselflies as well as a host of other wildlife.