From the Essex Chronicle:
BARGES, gondolas and pleasure boats could one day dominate Chelmsford’s rivers in a plan to transform the city’s waterways into a free-flowing “Venice of East Anglia”.
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Campaigners are backing plans for a key canal to be built beside Essex Record Office? in Wharf Road, to open up Chelmsford to river traffic from across mid Essex and beyond.
The developer which bought the land for 350 homes however, the owners of the derelict gas works nearby and a sceptical city council stand in the way of a proposal that dates back more than 20 years.
“Our waterways are a jewel in our crown that’s under-explored,” said campaigning Liberal Democrat city councillor Graham Pooley.
Essex Waterways, Chelmer Canal Trust and the Lib Dems want the 150-metre long canal, known as “the cut”, to be dug out to link the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation Canal and the River Chelmer.
It would bypass the weir and low-lying bridge which currently blocks all boats, sailing in from the sea, Maldon, Heybridge, Little Baddow and Papermill Lock, from accessing the city centre.
Instead, only canoes and rafts from the nearby canoe club in Empire Walk can paddle their way around the city.
The new waterscape might mimic not only Venice, but cities like Salisbury, Cambridge, Bedford and Chester.
The Lib Dems claim the idea has been bubbling on for at least two decades, but it has been granted fresh urgency after the land changed ownership.
The city council agreed to sell its 234-space car park at the Chelmer Waterside peninsula to developer Taylor Wimpey in a deal estimated to cost at least ?15 million, stoking fears the canal idea would be ruled out forever.
Chelmer Canal Trust chairman Dudley Courtman said: “The combined presence of such boats would greatly enhance the visual landscape.
“Chelmsford is an attractive town and an added Venetian dimension would be the icing on the cake.”…..