Waterways need investment - Öpik

11.55.20am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 25th Apr 2007

During a debate in the House of Commons, Lembit Öpik, MP for Montgomeryshire today highlighted the threat which cuts in the Government's budget allocation to British Waterways could have to the campaign to reconnect Montgomery canal to the British canal network.

"I've been working with the local canal groups for 10 years now, to try and secure a clear investment commitment from the authorities to reconnect this important stretch of canal. Everybody knows that canals pay for themselves many times over in commercial return to the area.

"Yet the Government seems obsessed with making this type of investment harder, by slashing the British Waterways budget. It is economic madness to cut such important investment at a time when we should be grabbing the opportunity to allow the area to diversify into attractive leisure industries like the waterways.

"Together with MPs from all parties, I'm working to force a rethink in DEFRA. When it comes to our treasured canals, they're approach is clear, simple and wrong, when it would be so easy to get right."

Ends