'Volunteers Flood In' project receives special award

'Volunteers Flood In' project receives special award

The 'Volunteers Flood In' project received a Special Award at the 2016 National Living Waterways Awards ceremony, held at Birmingham Town Hall on Wednesday night (14 September 2016).

On the Rochdale Canal, volunteers worked alongside construction teams to repair large sections of towpath. The Calder Navigation Society, Safe Anchor Trust, South Pennine Boat Club and Shire Cruisers got out on their boats to report vital information about damage on the Calder & Hebble.

Launched by the Canal & River Trust in February, and sponsored by Kier, Arcadis, CPC Civils and Fountains, the Living Waterways Awards seek to recognise the most exciting and inspiring waterway-based improvement projects across the UK.

Richard Parry, chief executive of the Canal & River Trust, explains: “The Living Waterways Awards celebrate the individuals, communities and organisations that have done the most to make a difference to the nation’s rivers, canals, lochs, lakes, reservoirs and docks, making them exciting places to live, learn and spend time.”

In the wake of the terrible Boxing Day floods of 2015, large numbers of volunteers and staff from river soaked communities in the Calder Valley, rallied to make their waterways safe and accessible again as quickly as possible.

The scale of the undertaking was immense, but everyone worked together to assess the damage and start removing hazards and litter along almost 100 miles of canals.

Restoration work is ongoing, but so far over 500 days of volunteer labour has been given, 200 new Canal & River Trust volunteers signed-up and £65,000 donated.

Christopher Rodrigues CBC, Chairman of the Living Waterways Awards Assessment Panel, said: “This year the Living Waterways Awards' Assessment Panel chose to give a Special Award in recognition of the impressive management and co-ordination of the extraordinary response from the local community to the winter floods.

“While these floods had a devastating impact on local communities what has become apparent from this incredible community response is their love and desire to help in the rebuild their waterways.”