The Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Trust 11th Annual Partnership Conference

The Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Trust held its 11th Annual Partnership Conference on Friday, 9 May to promote the BMK Waterway Park.

BMK Waterway Trust Chair, Simon Clewlow, hosted the event and, after a welcome from the Chair of the Forest of Marston Vale Trust, Rod J Calvert OBE DL, the Trust was supported by a keynote address from MP for Mid Bedfordshire Blake Stephenson.  Blake emphasised the need to improve our climate resilience and tackle flooding, making projects like the BMK Waterway Park not just be a ‘nice to have’, but essential to our future.  Blake also noted that the park will be an important addition to nature restoration and Bedfordshire’s tourism offer, a key theme for him since he was elected to Parliament in July last year.

An audience comprising Councillors from the three local authorities along the waterway route, Bedford Borough Council, Central Bedfordshire Council and Milton Keynes City Council, together with representatives from other Partner organisations such as Environment Agency, Internal Drainage Board Bedford and the Forest of Marston Vale, along with local landowners, previous contributors and Trust Members, heard interesting presentations from Karina Csopik and Peter Robinson from AECOM and Fiona Rowe from Affinity Water about the many and diverse ways that the waterway could contribute to the area and region. 

Karina Csopik, Associate Director at AECOM Economics & Economic Development Team presented the findings of AECOM’s work on the Business Case for the Waterway Park. More details about the Business Case will be released shortly but in the meantime the Conference heard that the Benefit to Cost Ratio is solidly greater than 2 which makes the project an attractive investment for the country in order to stimulate economic growth. 

Fiona Rowe, Community and Construction Liaison Manager for Affinity Water, provided details of progress with the Grand Union Canal Transfer scheme which it is proposed could supply water to the BMK Waterway.

Peter Robinson, Technical Excellence Director at AECOM set out how experience with the development of the Glasgow Smart Canal scheme could be applied to provide flood resilience and manage water resources between the Grand Union Canal and the River Great Ouse, i.e., from the wet west to the dry east, thereby ensuring that, in the future, we can all have ‘Water Where It’s Wanted’.

Delegates also watched extracts from a fascinating short film titled ‘21st Century Canal’ by BrickDust, the whole of which you can view here: https://youtu.be/gXe4h-3_GLk?si=yHr6BMEH0Xkj6qC3

Before closing the conference, Simon announced that more details about the first phase of a Design Study will be available soon along with a pathway towards how a demonstration section of the waterway could be delivered over the next couple of years.

Discussion between the audience and speakers lastly focussed on finding funding for the BMK Waterway Park ,being a local project which will bring regional and strategic benefits, and how it will provide a complementary tourist offer to the planned Universal Theme Park and Resort, which will be located close by the Waterway south of Bedford.

Bedford and Milton Keynes Waterway Trust would like to thank Cranfield University for the excellent facilities and for supporting the project.