PLANS to restore a section of canal on the outskirts of Newent to working order have been submitted to the Forest Council.

The proposal for a three-quarters of a mile stretch of the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire canal at Malswick has been submitted by the trust that is behind a long-term scheme to restore the waterway between Hereford and Gloucester.

But Newent town councillors say that the canal trust should finish off other projects that have already been started before embarking on a new project.

The town council agreed to object to the scheme on the casting vote of mayor Cllr Christine Howley after members were tied five each on the issue.

Cllr Roger Beard said finishing off other parts of the project – such as proposals for the town’s former railway station – could help Newent become a “destination town”.

He said: “I think they (the trust) have done a cracking job up to now but they need to start finishing off before they start other things.

“We were going to have, on the old station, a boat terminus – there was drawing showing boats in that area. That would encourage people to come to Newent.

“Our High Street will find it difficult to compete but if we had something like that it would give us a destination.

“The bit down at Malswick is going from nowhere to nowhere and the drawings they’ve done look pretty but they don’t tell me much as an engineer.”

Cllr Mary Duffield said she could not support this “nibble” at the canal and added that it could not link the two cities until the tunnel section near Newent was tackled.

She said: “There are little bits being done here and there and never being finished off – the station, a piece at Malswick – but none of this can be taken seriously until they have committed themselves to opening the tunnel and that’s a multi-million pound engineering project.”

But Cllr Gill Moseley said they should support individual projects which might eventually come together as one stretch of water.

She said: “I’m fully in support. I know we are not going to see it joined up in my lifetime but we need to see the big picture which isn’t necessarily a continuous waterway at the moment.

“We need to think of it in bits and the bits hopefully will eventually be joined up.

“The fact it will not be joined up in many of our lifetimes should not stop us supporting something that could be a useful asset in attracting people to Newent.”

The mayor used her casting vote for an objection reluctantly.

She said: “We need to see a business plan and then we could get behind more.

“I’ve walked the canal walkway for 20 years and it hasn’t gone anywhere.”

The planned restoration at Malswick would be visible from the B4215 into Newent and would also include a flat towpath to encourage walkers and cyclists.

The canal was emptied of water in the 1880s to develop a railway and the line through Newent eventually closed in 1964.