23/07/04 - £50,000 support for Ulverston Canal and Kendal Trade

Today, Cumbria County Council's South Lakeland local committee agreed £25,000 support for a `Masterplanning' exercise for the Ulverston Canal and £25,000 towards marketing, parking and public transport in Kendal, particularly for Christmas 2004. 

County Councillor Oliver Pearson, South Lakeland local committee chair says, 

"I am delighted that the committee is supporting the local economy in this practical way as the economic wellbeing of the people of South Lakeland is one of the committee's priorities." 

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is a major local landowner, with 254 acres of land in and around Ulverston's Canal Corridor. The GSK plant takes up 54 acres of this land and GSK now want to include the remaining 200 acres as part of the canal Masterplan. The company has contributed £5,000 towards this £100,000 project and has asked Cumbria County Council and South Lakeland District Council to each contribute £25,000. The masterplan aims to ensure that the canal is kept as an amenity for the town. It will provide creative, sensitive solutions to the on-going maintenance and ownership of the canal together with the development of land and other assets for community benefit. 

The local committee has supported a number of economic regeneration projects in Kendal. This new package of funding will support marketing initiatives to highlight Kendal as a Christmas shopping destination. For the Christmas period, it will also fund a pilot scheme providing temporary car parks on the edge of the town, served by free or subsidised transport.