More than £200k to protect canal homes from floods

More than £200,000 is to be spent on flood prevention measures to help protect homes near a canal.

South Kesteven District Council's cabinet awarded £205,000 for work on a 0.6-mile (1km) stretch of the Grantham Canal - from Earlesfield Lane to Swingbridge Road - at a meeting on Tuesday.

Councillors heard high water levels had been an issue for many years and the work aimed to prevent the risk of future flooding.

Cabinet member for property and public engagement, Richard Cleaver, said the work was important to protect properties.

He told the meeting: "I'm afraid things like that don't come for free, as we are aware. This is not going to be a cheap exercise because there's nearly a kilometre of canal that we have to maintain."

However, he said the authority had a responsibility to the community to make sure the canal is safe and kept in a good state of repair.

The authority's deputy chief executive, Richard Wyles, said the matter had been awaiting attention for some time.

"Unfortunately, this is one of those backlog maintenance issues that this administration has asked us to look at.

"A part of the canal has been neglected for many years," he said.

The council is also working in collaboration with The Grantham Canal Partnership, which includes the Grantham Canal Society as part of efforts to maintain and restore the canal, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Grantham Canal, which runs through Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire, first opened in 1797 and was originally used to transport coal.

It closed to boats in 1936 after it was sold to a railway company.

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