A long term plan to restore the Montgomery Canal has been boosted by the use of a ‘community payback’ scheme to help with improving towpath surfaces and hedgerows on a half-mile stretch between Pant Bridge and Penny Garreg Lane in Shropshire.
The Canal & River Trust are working with Warwickshire and West Mercia Community Rehabilitation Company to carry out environmental improvement work along an important section of the dry canal.
This project is a trial that forms part of the Heritage Lottery Fund-backed development phase of the canal restoration. There will be ten supervised sessions that will allow the Trust to gauge the effectiveness of this new approach and may form part of the ongoing restoration project for years to come.
Howard Griffiths, waterway supervisor from the Canal & River Trust, said: “This type of outdoor, environmental improvement work is ideal as a community payback scheme. It offers participants the chance to learn valuable work skills and is a highly cost-effective way to improve the canal towpath and hedgerows for the benefit of the whole community.”
