Get Involved | Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Park

Help us grow the waterway park

Why not play your part in delivering the Waterway Park? There are lots of ways you can get involved and find out more; by becoming a member, donating or giving your time as a volunteer. We would love to hear from you.

Volunteering Opportunities

The whole organisation is run by volunteers and we are always looking for enthusiastic people willing to share some of their precious time. From scrutinizing planning applications or managing a construction project; Every volunteer brings different skills providing the organisation with a wide range of experience that it can draw on.

The Trust also relies upon people with more general experience in planning, marketing, project management and engineering to mention but a few to promote the waterway park and help deliver the project. If you are interested in joining our team, please get in touch.

Volunteering Opportunities

Become a Member

By becoming a member you will be providing a useful contribution to the costs of running the project, and helping us to show the decision makers that you really care. National and local government and grant awarding bodies take notice of the amount of support that we have. Showing a growing membership helps us enormously.

To join the Trust, please download the Membership Application form below. Please also complete the Gift Aid section where applicable. If you wish to pay by direct debit in future, please also complete the Direct Debit form and send that too. Annual subscriptions are due on 1st June each year.

Download the Membership Application form

Download

Download the Direct Debit form

Download

Make a Donation

Your donations are making the waterway park a reality – Extending the navigation on the river Great Ouse as part of the waterway park, marking & securing the route as well as technical and economic studies, these are just some of the projects we are working on.

Make a Donation

Mark the Route

The short path through the Forest of Marston Vale’s Millennium Country Park features specially-commissioned carvings of boats, birds and animals which will make their habitat in the waterway park area. The carvings have been created on behalf of the Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Trust by local wood carving artists Carrie Yuen & Tony Langton.

Follow the pathway along a key central stretch of the route to get a taste of the exciting future for the Waterway Park. When completed, it will provide a unique pastoral location for boaters, walkers, cyclists, anglers and horse-riders, as well as linking new and existing villages.

A specially written poem for Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Trust by Nancy Campbell can be viewed here.

The carvings can be found at the Forest of Marston Vale’s Millennium Country Park in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire MK43 0PR. With grateful thanks to Central Bedfordshire Council and the Forest of Marston Vale.

Talks & Conferences

Interested in the proposed building of the Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway? Our experienced team of speakers has so far undertaken over 150 presentations and spoken to nearly 4500 people. If your group/organisation would like an illustrated talk on the latest developments, please contact the Trust’s Talks Organisers, who will provide a speaker to suit your needs. Call us on 01908 351870 or fill in the form to get in touch. We would welcome new volunteers to join our team of speakers. Full training would be given and regular updates provided. If you are interested please get in touch.

Enquire about a talk or conference

Walks

Our advertised walks are informally guided by our volunteers and follow the B&MK waymarker posts across the Bucks and Beds countryside. Every year we aim to walk a section of the planned route of the waterway between Milton Keynes and Bedford. Everyone is welcome to come along and learn about how the vision for a new 26km waterway, paths and parkland linking the 2 towns, and all the communities in between, is being realised.

Self-guided walks

If you would like to walk any of our previous routes yourself, maps and directions are available to download, below. We have given the most recent date that the Trust has led guided walks over these sections, as an indication of the accuracy of the information provided, but local developments can constantly change the availability and routing of permissive paths.