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Daventry Canal Arm...... Its a Big No?


matty40s

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If Daventry really want to be ambitious, how about extending this arm to build a canal right through, perhaps to somewhere on the Oxford summit? I think there's not much height difference, with Daventry being maybe a bit higher, so if a good route and a water supply can be found (some water is needed anyway for the arm they plan), the obstacle would be the cost of a few extra locks and some miles of following a contour?

 

If the geography allows it, and the money can be found, I think a through canal there would get a lot of traffic. Hire boats would love it and it'd be a short cut across from the GU to the Oxford. It might also give CRT useful extra options for managing water and providing an alternative route around closures.

Not quiet sure which part of the Oxford you suggest connecting with but if it provided a bypass to Braunston that would be welcome (even if the businesses there might not think so!)

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So the Planning Committee of Daventry council give themselves planning permission to go ahead with the canal arm despite the majority in a recent referendum being against it. Local democracy in action. They do not say how much it will cost or where the money will come from, they say that CRT is for the project but will they take on the maintenance once its finished.

As a local tax payer believe me there is a lot more things that need doing in Daventry district before a canal although it might be handy now the local tip only opens 3 days a week.

David

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So the Planning Committee of Daventry council give themselves planning permission to go ahead with the canal arm despite the majority in a recent referendum being against it. Local democracy in action. They do not say how much it will cost or where the money will come from, they say that CRT is for the project but will they take on the maintenance once its finished.

As a local tax payer believe me there is a lot more things that need doing in Daventry district before a canal although it might be handy now the local tip only opens 3 days a week.

David

Is that a recent full referendum in which the local electorate were obliged to go and vote, or was it a survey.

 

To be honest I'd be somewhere between amazed and astonished if Daventry Council have any intention of funding this project themselves given the dire financial straits of most councils. This means that the most likely sources of funding will be Lottery funding, CRT, Sustrans and wherever else they can get money from. Can all of the other things that Daventry may need get the same, non-council funding?

Edited by Wanderer Vagabond
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Is that a recent full referendum in which the local electorate were obliged to go and vote, or was it a survey.

 

To be honest I'd be somewhere between amazed and astonished if Daventry Council have any intention of funding this project themselves given the dire financial straits of most councils. This means that the most likely sources of funding will be Lottery funding, CRT, Sustrans and wherever else they can get money from. Can all of the other things that Daventry may need get the same, non-council funding?

The 'referendum' was a Parish Poll which has no real value except to inform the District Council of feelings of the voting public - it was over 70% against the canal proposal but of no influence. The money to start it will come from the Community Infrastructure levy - charge against new developers of housing earmarked for some of a list of projects selected by - guess who - the District Council. Guess what one of the nominated projects was?

 

Not a tax on local people (except that the developers factor that cost into the price of the houses they build.)

 

You could probably accuse me of being cynical but I couldn't possibly comment - I only lived within 200yards of the proposed terminus of the new Arm for 28 years - what do I know!!

Edited by Arphamoe
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The 'referendum' was a Parish Poll which has no real value except to inform the District Council of feelings of the voting public - it was over 70% against the canal proposal but of no influence. The money to start it will come from the Community Infrastructure levy - charge against new developers of housing earmarked for some of a list of projects selected by - guess who - the District Council. Guess what one of the nominated projects was?

 

Not a tax on local people (except that the developers factor that cost into the price of the houses they build.)

 

You could probably accuse me of being cynical but I couldn't possibly comment - I only lived within 200yards of the proposed terminus of the new Arm for 28 years - what do I know!!

So basically it was a survey then. The trouble with surveys is that they tend to be self selecting in that those with strong opinions on the matter are the ones that are likely to complete the survey.

 

I did actually listen to some of the council planning meeting on You tube

 

(quite radical for councils to put their discussions in the public domain like that), and I did hear that the Town Council and District Council have differing views on the matter. The thing that strikes me is that it might be quite astute for the District Council to have granted themselves planning permission for the project and, assuming that the land concerned is owned by them, to then sell the land onto developers with the planning permission. This seems to me a whole lot more astute than selling on what is effectively farmland, at farmland rates, to a developer who then applies for planning permission to build the canal (and presumably adjacent residential properties) and makes himself a bucketload of money by applying for and getting planning permission for the the project thereby changing the land use from farmland to residential/commercial. Personally I'd rather that the local people benefited from the financial transaction than some developer, but I suppose I'm just a Socialist rolleyes.gif

Edited by Wanderer Vagabond
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