15th November 2016
The Secretary of State for Transport, Chris Grayling, announced today that the Government’s preferred route for Phase 2b of the proposed High Speed rail line between Birmingham and Leeds will be the alternative route announced in July. (Click here for that announcement.)
This route crosses the canal once, at Norwood, rather than lying on top of it for 2 km, at Renishaw and Spinkhill, as was the case in the original 2013 route. (Click here for that announcement.)
The line to the proposed Infrastructure Maintenance Depot at Staveley crosses the canal once, rather than three times as was the case in the 2013 route.
There will now be a consultation about this route which closes on 9th March 2017. We will be giving advice about the consultation soon.
Please note that whilst this is good news for the canal, nothing has been finalised. Until the original 2013 route has been officially abandoned, the canal remains blighted and we can not apply for any grants to do restoration between Staveley and Killamarsh. The final route decision will not be made until the summer of 2017.
Please see below for details about the route changes and the consultation.
Click here for the summary of the route refinements. The bits that affect the canal are on pages 61 to 66.
Click here for the route engineering report. The bits that affect the canal are on pages 46 to 49.
The canal will go under the proposed route at the bottom of this map. The blue ponds above Norwood are the side ponds for Norwood Locks. The new Kiveton Waters Marina will be in the ponds just under Kiveton Bridge Station.
Staveley Town Basin is in the loop just east of the Infrastructure Maintenance Depot. It was opened in 2012.
To read about the Consultation, click here.
To see the Consultation document, click here.
To see the Response form, click here.
To see the Consultation booklet, click here.
The question that affects the canal is Question 7.
Please note that not all the proposed changes are up for consultation, e.g. the proposal to raise the Doe Lea viaduct by 5m, see below.
