The Canal and River Trust’s 2016/17 Annual Report, published today, records the highest levels of public support and investment in its 2,000 miles of historic waterways since they were transferred from state control five years ago .
“A strong commercial performance during the year, including a further rise in the number of people donating to our work, was underpinned by a significant growth in volunteering which reached over half a million hours for the first time,” the trust said.
“The year saw us increase the money we are able to spend on charitable activities by 6% to £157m,” they added.
This included their biggest ever program of lock repairs and gate replacements, as well as hundreds of thousands of minor repair and maintenance tasks such as vegetation management, servicing of bridges and vital inspections of embankments and hidden culverts.
“Amongst other things, we made improvements at our museums, invested in flood remediation work and completed dredging across 22 priority sites,” the trust said.
They delivered a series of major towpath upgrades across the country and fixed the damage caused during the 2015 Boxing Day floods including major repairs of a breach and land slip in the Calder Valley and the complete dismantlement and reconstruction of the Grade II listed Elland Bridge.