Management of canals passes to charity (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

The cheif executive of the Cotswold Canals Trust has spoken to the Standard after the management of Britain's canals has been passed from British Waterways to the Canals and Rivers Trust

5:30pm Friday 20th July 2012 in News By Ian Craig

CHANGES are afoot for Britain’s canals.

Management of the 2,000 mile network, which was previously handled by British Waterways, has been transferred to the Canal and Rivers Trust (CRT).

The charity has said it hopes to return the canals to their former position as an integral part of British infrastructure.

Ken Burgin, chief executive of the Cotswold Canals Trust, an organisation working towards restoring the 36 miles of canal which runs between the River Seven at Saul and the Thames at Lechlade, said he expected their work to continue as normal.

“The CRT will certainly have their work cut out to find their feet and they haven’t got lots of money to throw about,” he said.

“We’ve done a lot of work with the Cotswold canals and it may well be that the opportunity exists to work with the CRT to merge them into the main network, but that’s a long way off.

“We’re neither worried nor do we expect any great changes to occur.”