IWA WATERWAY COMPANION AWARD RECOGNISES WORK FOR THE RESTORATION OF THE NORTHERN REACHES OF THE LANCASTER CANAL

The Inland Waterways Association (IWA) will present the 2000 Waterway Companion Award to Alastair McNeill, Projects and Initiatives Officer of South Lakeland District Council on 9 May.

The presentation will take place at the Seminar on Waterway Restoration Partnerships to be held at Sandwell Council House (West Midlands) on that day. The conference is jointly sponsored by the Inland Waterways Association, The Waterways Trust, and British Waterways.

The award will be presented by the Conference Chairman, Audrey Smith OBE (a Vice President of the Association), in front of a wide selection of senior officers from waterway management, local authorities with waterside interests, and the voluntary sector which has long campaigned for waterway restoration. Audrey will say that the audience makes it a particularly appropriate occasion on which to present this annual award "for the Local Authority officer who has provided very significant support to a waterway restoration project."

Alastair receives his award for the support he has given, on behalf of South Lakeland District Council, to the Northern Reaches Restoration Group, the informal grouping of British Waterways, local authorities, The Waterways Trust and the voluntary sector, which is bringing closer the restoration of the Lancaster Canal from Tewitfield back to Kendal.

Both Hal Bagot, the Chairman of the Group, and John Fletcher, the IWA representative on the Group, will express their delight at the award which recognises the consistent contribution made both by Alastair personally, and by the authority he represents, in whose area most of the Lancaster Canal to be restored is situated. Debbie Lumb, British Waterways' manager of the Lancaster Canal and Roger Hanbury, Chief Executive of the Waterways T rust, will be among those expressing their congratulations to both Alastair and South Lakeland District Council.

Restoration of the Northern Reaches will re-open the final 14 miles of the Lancaster Canal, connecting Kendal to the national network for the first time in its history. The canal was severed in three places by the build ing of the M6 motorway during the 1960's and subsequent highway improvements. This estimated £30 million restoration project is the 5 year vision of the Northern Reaches Restoration Group whose partners include South La keland District Council, Lancaster City Council, Cumbria County Council, Lancashire County Council, the Inland Waterways Association, The Waterways Trust, Lancaster Canal Trust and British Waterways.