PLANS to connect Hereford and Gloucester via a canal have been dubbed ‘a pipe dream’ after a recent survey shows landowners along its route are opposed to the scheme.

The survey, conducted by John Teire of Oxenhall, engaged with 50 landowners and local residents and found that 97.87 per cent of respondents thought the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal Trust’s project was unfeasible.

The canal trust wishes to restore the 34-mile route which would stretch by Ledbury, Dymock and Newent.

And they say the development will give the local economy and tourism a huge boost.

However, more than 71 per cent of respondents said they would not allow the canal trust onto their property with only 6.52 per cent in favour and 21.74 per cent unsure.

“The canal trust are pursuing this pipe dream in a totally self-contained way, with no consultation or communication whatsoever with people whose lives, and properties are seriously affected and now blighted by it,” one of the respondents said.

“It is a totally unrealistic aspiration particularly given that landowners will not co-operate with them, partially based on the attitude afforded to them by the canal trust of arrogance and riding rough-shod on land that does not belong to them.”

The canal trust currently only owns three miles of the entire route with the remaining in private ownership and three miles obstructed. There is a total of 94 private landowners along the route.

More than three quarters of respondents also believe the proposals for a large canal embankment from Newent to Oxenhall would be far too big, too high and very wide.

Another respondent said: “The proposed embankment on the Oxenhall / Newent stretch is totally unacceptable and will lose any support that the trust has from the local community.”

While others said that the canals dilapidated state offered a habitat for wildlife that would be destroyed if it were rebuilt.

A common theme among local residents is a feeling that the canal trust has not done enough to engage with them.

One respondent said: “It is unacceptable to impose a protected route through private landowners property.

“I feel that Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal Trust need to work much harder to engage with landowners along their proposed protected route.”

The canal trust was contacted, but were not available for comment at the time of going to press.