HUDDERSFIELD Narrow Canal was a magnificent feat of engineering when it was built 200 years ago.

After it closed it fell into ruin and it was only due to many years of voluntary work by dedicated Huddersfield Narrow Canal Society members that it was fully restored and became once more navigable by boats. This, in turn, led to more tourists visiting the area and helped to put Huddersfield back on the waterways map.

Now work to replace 15 lock gates is underway as part of British Waterways’ £50m national winter maintenance programme.

But in just five months the Government will put canals and rivers under the care of a new charity called the Canal And River Trust.

It will be heavily reliant on Government grants and although there are moves to protect this level of funding for the next 10 years it’s hard to be sure how much will be forthcoming when the country is in such dire economic straits.

It’s vital a realistic sum is ‘ring-fenced’ by the Government to make sure the Trust gets the funding it needs to continue with the expensive maintenance work our waterways need to keep their link to the past alive and continued prosperity from visitors and tourists in the future.

The greatest tragedy would be if it was allowed to decay again for once maintenance starts to slip it’s very difficult to get it back on course.