The seminar on Monday morning on the subject of the canals of the county borough (Swansea, Tennant & Neath), referred to in my previous posting, duly took place. The keynote speaker was Andrew Stumpf of British Waterways, who illustrated his talk on the merits of inland waterways with examples largely from Scotland. It has to be admitted that, from a lower base than in Wales, BW in Scotland, with assistance from public authorities, has achieved some remarkable successes, including some engineering world firsts. I was most taken by the greening of Maryhill (“Taggart” territory) in Glasgow which I remember as, though not the worst area in Glasgow, not one would choose to enjoy a canal-side walk in. Judging by Andrew’s photos, that has certainly changed.

There is now a navigable canal from the Clyde in the west to the east coast of Scotland, with a spur to Edinburgh. Andrew made the point that, although relatively few people used the canal end-to-end, the fact of the connectedness of the canal was enough to encourage more to use it. Those short journeys are overwhelmingly made on foot or by bike. British Waterways calculate that 90% of inland waterways’ use is land-based, and 90% of the visitor spend depends on these uses.

In a short session, Andrew couldn’t cover all the bases in detail, so only touched on canals’ benefits as nature reserves in their own right, and as connections between otherwise isolated green areas. I can vouch for the Neath Canal being home to the water vole, which is reckoned to be a threatened species in the UK overall.

A few other statistics: British Waterways is the third largest owner of listed buildings in the UK, and the most important custodian of industrial heritage. Towpaths in many parts of England are used for fibre-optic cables for broadband connections. Properties which abut onto inland waterways sell for between 1.5% and 35% more than equivalents, the average uplift being 18%. £22m was spent on the Liverpool Link, connecting the waterfront to the Liverpool-Leeds canal, resulting in an annual increase of 200,000 visitors to the waterfront.

In the discussion which followed, there was cross-party agreement on the importance of the canals to Neath Port Talbot.  John Flower, head of engineering and transport, confirmed that improvements to the potential network had been protected in the UDP.

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