Dignitaries, mayors, councillors, academics, officials and members gathered for the Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Trust’s second annual partnership conference and bicentenary dinner at The Barns Hotel, Bedford – the birthplace of Samuel Whitbread, who led a group of local businessmen to petition the then Mayor, Charles Short, to propose the original plan in 1811. The project was revived in the mid-1990s.

The Mayor, who is also chairman of the B&MK Waterway Consortium - local councils, agencies and community groups driving the project forward - told the conference that the line of the waterway is in all local plans and frameworks “and we have to make sure it happens.”

Developers were very aware of the waterway route. “They have to consider the waterway in all their plans and we have to keep reminding them of its benefits and keep them on their toes. We are already seeing some added value such as the conversations we are having about a new and better route for the cycle route 51 from west of Kempston across the Marston Forest where people can see the route happening.
“I have never been more convinced that we are getting closer. We have something on the ground with the underpass beneath the A421 – which is obviously something Mayor Short wasn’t able to do,” said the Mayor.

For more information on this project visit www.B-MKWaterway.co.uk