Environment Agency and Water Levels in the Sankey Canal — House of Commons, 2022-07-12
Topic: Public Lands
Andrew John Carter (Conservative, Centre-right): I start by congratulating my neighbour, the hon. Member for Halton (Derek Twigg) on securing this debate, and I have to say I agree with pretty much everything he has said. While it is often the case that Warrington and Widnes will do battle when it comes to rugby league, we are standing as one on the issue of the Sankey canal I am, as the hon. Gentleman is, keen to find an urgent solution. Even though the visual problem we see with an empty canal is not actually in Warrington South in my constituency, I know that local people value this area as a leisure amenity. As he has just said, it is a beautiful part of the north-west and somewhere that people can enjoy outdoor space and make the most of the fantastic countryside that we have. Frankly, political boundaries do not matter to normal people. They are not bothered which council controls it; they just want the issue sorting. The overwhelming message in what I am about to say is that we need to find a solution and we need to get people together. I am pleased that between us we will manage to bring people together at the end of this month, and I hope we can find a long-lasting solution that delivers for the people of Warrington and Halton I pay particular tribute to the volunteers at the Sankey Canal Restoration Society, who have spent many years working to restore and preserve this canal. I can only imagine the angst that they feel when they look at the asset—the prized asset—they have been working to restore suddenly drained and, frankly, in a terrible state. I have seen some of the pictures, and there really is a contrasting image of two canals—a canal in Warrington that is full of water and has been maintained by the local authority and, I am afraid to say, a canal in Halton that, as the hon. Member said, has not been maintained and now has no water in it, but has silt at the bottom and, frankly, looks in a terrible state I first met those from SSE, which currently owns the Fiddler’s Ferry site, a number of years back when I was elected. I spoke to them on numerous occasions because I knew the site was going to be cleared and that demolition would follow, and each time they told me that they had warned the local councils this was going to happen. It was a problem that could have been foreseen, and their decommissioning plans and their plan to withdraw power needed a solution from local councils. Halton and Warrington, along with the Sankey Canal Restoration Society, have been working together on this because they have an aspiration to restore navigation to the entire length of the canal, but it seems that we have really been pushed backwards in that respect One of the considerations of this project was finding a permanent and sustainable water supply, and I understand that various options have been explored over the years. Having received a report from Warrington Council, it seems that no solutions are free from difficulty. I understand that water from the canal is being lost at a rate of about 9,000 cubic metres a day, which is a significant amount, and we really do need this work to continue I will conclude by saying that the hon. Member is absolutely right: a financial solution is required from the councils. I know that Warrington is continuing to invest, and I do urge the Minister, wherever he possibly can, to intervene to support the efforts to restore this canal, because this really matters to my constituents.