Future vision for canal area
A vision of how part of a playground of the Midlands could be redeveloped has been released revealing a cosmopolitan syle with restaurants, bars, cafes and canalside apartments. A vision of how part of a playground of the Midlands could be redeveloped has been released revealing a cosmopolitan syle with restaurants, bars, cafes and canalside apartments. A £3.3 million pound scheme is planned for the Clock Basin area at Stourport, which has been regarded as a sort of inland holiday resort by people from the Black Country and Birmingham since Victorian times when paddle steamers used to take people on trips down the River Severn. Now the canal basins are seen as providing a catalyst for regeneration to boost the local economy and ensure the town remains one of the premier visitor locations in the Midlands. Officials hope the redevelopment scheme for part of Bridge Street area will help boost tourism. Read the full story in the Express & Star.
A £3.3 million pound scheme is planned for the Clock Basin area at Stourport, which has been regarded as a sort of inland holiday resort by people from the Black Country and Birmingham since Victorian times when paddle steamers used to take people on trips down the River Severn.
Now the canal basins are seen as providing a catalyst for regeneration to boost the local economy and ensure the town remains one of the premier visitor locations in the Midlands.
Officials hope the redevelopment scheme for part of Bridge Street area will help boost tourism.
Proposals include plans for a link between the Stourport Canal Basin and the town centre via a tree-lined piazza or walkway.
The scheme is seen as complementing work already being carried out to refurbish the Stourport Canal Basin, with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and contributions from Stourport Forward. Civic leaders want to encourage more people to visit the canals area of the town.
Recent surveys showed that 25 per cent of people visiting the town never saw the basins which are regarded as one of the most complete Georgian canal structures in the Midlands.
Although the town developed around the basins these have become annexed from the town centre by developments during the past 150 years.
Advantage West Midlands issued the artist's impression of how this part of the town could look after announcing it was officially backing the scheme as part of its Market Towns Capital Investment Programme.
The project is being drawn up through a partnership consisting of Wyre Forest District Council, British Waterways and Advantage West Midlands.
A new bridge linking two historic basins at the waterfront was officially opened last August in a ceremony marking the first milestone in a mammoth regeneration project.
The work formed part of a landmark £2 million development which has seen the Mart Lane road bridge forming a gateway to the newly constructed Lichfield Basin.
