Mr. Simon Payne

Assitant Director of Planning

Stratford-on-Avon District Council

Elizabeth House Church street

Stratford-on-Avon CV37 6HX

6 November 2001

Dear Mr. Payne

FIRST REVIEW OF WATERWAY RESTORATION AND DEVELOPMENT PRIORITIES REPORT:

PROPOSED HIGHER AVON NAVIGATION/STRATFORD DISTRICT LOCAL PLAN

I am writing following an approach from Councillor Andrew Cooley who is seeking to have the Upper Avon Navigation Trust's proposal for the Higher Avon included in your draft district local plan which is shortly to be put on deposit.

As you may know, the Council, in its 1998 report Waterway Restoration Priorities, identified the project (which at that time was split into the Higher Avon navigation - Phase II and Higher Avon Navigation - Leam Link but now comprises a single scheme known to us as the Upper Avon Extension), as of national importance. The Council is the statutory advisory body on inland waterways to the Secretary of state for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and British waterways and carried out the 1998 assessment at the Government's request.

We have now completed a review of this report and expect to publish our findings in about a month's time. On the basis of our latest assessment, we will be confirming the national significance of the combined project, for the same reason as in 1998 i.e it will complete a shorter route from the Severn to the grand Union Canal and so to the Trent and the Thames, will create new cruising rings and help to boost the local economy.

Notwithstanding this potential value, the proposed project, as our report will note, remains very controversial and we record our hope that the work needed to assess environmental acceptability and viability will be set in hand.

We also recommend that, as far as practicable, the projects included in our report should be supported by the appropriate local authorities using the full range of their statutory powers and scope for advisory and funding support e.g. for assessment and feasibility studies. The key element of support will be the safeguarding of the line of a proposed project by including it in the relevant local plan so that within the plan period options can be kept open pending further studies of impact and potential benefits.

The Council would urge the District Council to provide an opportunity, in the near future, to hear a presentation from the promoters on this potentially important project, and then to give serious consideration to the action which can be taken with regard to incorporating it into the draft local plan.

I am copying this letter to Cllr Cooley

Yours sincerely

The Viscountess Knollys DL

Chairman

THE VISCOUNTESS KNOLLYS DL, CHAIRMAN