Scotland Falkirk Development Scottish Canals Wheel

Ahead of next weeks Smart Cities Development Conference we hear from one of those set to speak at the event – Catherine Topley, Chief Executive at Scottish Canals;

 

Scotland’s 250-year-old canals were once the thoroughfares that stoked the fires of the Industrial Revolution – transport arteries that carried goods, passengers and life and transformed the communities on their banks – and Scottish Canals is committed to making them as relevant today as they were when they were first carved through the heart and Highlands of the nation.

While they are home to cyclists and social enterprises rather than coal scows and Clydesdales today, they are increasingly vital venues for business, leisure and tourism that attract more than 22 million visits a year and are helping to drive regeneration and positive transformation through innovative projects on the water, the banks and beyond.

From when the canals were first carved from the rugged earth in 1768, through years of growth and decline, and their current renaissance, the nation’s waterways have been a constant figure in our most populous cities and some of our most rural villages. [emaillocker id=”71749″]

Offering sea-to-sea navigation and sustainable, cheap transport, the glory days of the canals saw them at the forefront of industry and innovation. From the creation of the iconic Clyde Puffers and the Charlotte Dundas – the world’s first steam ship – to the development of the largest sewing machine factory on the planet at Clydebank, Scotland’s inland waterways were beacons of cutting-edge engineering and industry. From dynamite factories to whisky bonds and ironworks, local job opportunities abounded in the industries alongside the canals, and the waterway became a defining feature of many local communities.

The glory days of Scotland’s canals continued for more than a century before the birth of rail sounded their death knell. Trains gradually replaced barges as the chosen mode of transport for both passengers and goods, with the thudding footsteps of heavy horses on the towpaths giving way to the whistle of steam and rhythmic thrum of the new mode of transport.

By the 1960s, the canals had fallen into decline and had been transformed from bustling arteries into unloved backwaters. They were seen as an outmoded form of transport, a barrier to development and a danger to local communities. By the mid-sixties, both the Forth & Clyde Canal and the Union Canal were closed. The Monkland Canal suffered an even more ignominious fate, with the once-proud waterway filled in to make way for the M8 motorway.

With no life on the water and no one to care for the canals, nature took over. They became overgrown with weeds, filled with rubbish, and their infrastructure gradually crumbled. But, despite these hardships, there was always hope in the communities along their banks that the canals could be brought back to life.

In 2002, the largest waterway regeneration project ever undertaken in Britain, the £84.5 million Millennium Link scheme, returned Scotland’s canals to a navigable state for the first time in almost four decades. A mammoth undertaking, the project saw the opening or refurbishment of 45 canal bridges; 28 road bridges; the construction or refurbishment of 41 locks; and the creation of more than five kilometres of new canal, as well as the removal of 300,000 tonnes of silt.

The vibrant blue and green space of Scotland’s canals was brought back to life and into the heart of the communities nationwide – but it was the signature project of the Millennium Link, The Falkirk Wheel, which captured imaginations around the world and served as an enduring symbol of the renaissance of Scotland’s 250-year old canals.

That story of regeneration is one that’s been replicated throughout North Glasgow, with partnership working, community engagement, and innovative thinking – as well as the unique green and blue space of the city’s Forth & Clyde Canal – used to transform some of Scotland’s most disadvantaged areas.

North Glasgow suffers from profound health and social issues. The region is ranked highest in the country for almost every major cause of premature death, and its young people are 70% more likely to be taken into the social care system than those in the rest of Scotland. Most shockingly, the number of drug and alcohol-related mortalities in North Glasgow are 223% and 119% above the national average, respectively.

However, innovative use of the green and blue space of the Forth & Clyde Canal is changing the fortunes of the area. In recent years, Scottish Canals and its partners in the Glasgow Canal Regeneration Partnership have undertaken a number of inventive projects designed to improve links between the area and the city centre – overcoming the formidable barrier of the M8 motorway – and bring new investment, opportunities and vibrancy to North Glasgow.

The first phase of the regeneration of North Glasgow involved the radical revitalisation of a crucial link to the city centre which was severed by the construction of the M8 motorway in the 1960s – the Garscube Link. The existing route was a hostile environment: dark, dirty, noisy, and intimidating. The new public realm is significantly wider than the previous underpass, held together by a single, flowing, red resin surface that doesn’t constrain those using it to a single, confrontational route.

The route is illuminated by a ribbon of 50 coloured aluminium “flowers”, fluttering through the space 8 metres up in the air, that draw the visitor through the route in deliberate contrast to the solidity of the concrete. The Garscube Link has been christened The Phoenix Flowers, a reference to the former Phoenix Park which once occupied the site and a nod to the symbolic rebirth of North Glasgow.

This fusion of art, innovation and regeneration has come to define the ongoing work to revitalise the area. Speirs Wharf, which was once a commercial hub featuring everything from bonded warehouses and distilleries to grain mills and glassworks, is fast becoming a hub for culture. A flourishing creative quarter featuring the likes of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow Sculpture Studios, Scottish Opera, the National Theatre of Scotland, and a plethora of digital agencies and Turner Prize-nominated artists in the area’s rejuvenated Whisky Bond is blossoming. The project has helped bring new investment, job opportunities and life to a once-neglected area of the city, with the green and blue infrastructure of the Forth & Clyde Canal at the heart of the blossoming creative community.

Scotland Glasgow City Council Development Expansion Regeneration Scottish Canals

North Glasgow has had more than £5 million invested in its regeneration by Scottish Canals and its partners in recent years, developing everything from heritage trails to connect the local community and visitors with the rich history of the area to the further improvement of links to the city centre with new bridges and pathways.

From Glasgow to The Falkirk Wheel and beyond, the renaissance of Scotland’s canals has had a huge effect on the nation, with more than 170,000m2 of canalside development undertaken, generating over £150 million in economic impact over the last decade. As well as the benefits on the banks, the health benefits attributed to increased usage of the canals by boot, boat and bike exceeds £8m per annum.

The green and blue infrastructure of Scotland’s canals is playing a key role on a local and national level, but one project in particular has placed the nation’s waterways firmly in the public eye – Glasgow’s Smart Canal.

A first in Europe, the scheme will use the 250-year-old Forth & Clyde Canal and 21st century technology to mitigate flood risk as well as enable massive regeneration in Glasgow. The pioneering new digital surface water drainage system will unlock 110 hectares across the north of the city for investment, regeneration and development, paving the way for more than 3,000 new homes.

The £17m project, being delivered via a partnership of Glasgow City Council, Scottish Canals and Scottish Water under the umbrella of the Metropolitan Glasgow Strategic Drainage Partnership, will use sensor and predictive weather technology to provide early warning of wet weather before moving excess rainfall from residential and business areas into stretches of the canal where water levels have been lowered by as much as 10cm. This will create 55,000 cubic metres of extra capacity for floodwater – equivalent to 22 Olympic swimming pools.

Officially named the North Glasgow Integrated Water Management System, the project to create a so-called ‘sponge city’ – a term used to describe how cities respond to surface water flooding – will see North Glasgow passively absorb, clean and use rainfall intelligently. Advanced warning of heavy rainfall will automatically trigger a lowering of the canal water level to create capacity for surface water run-off.

Before periods of heavy rain, canal water will be moved safely through a network of newly created urban spaces – from sustainable urban drainage ponds to granite channels – that absorb and manage water in a controlled way, creating space for surface water run-off.

The role of Scotland’s canals may have changed from when they served as the thoroughfares of the Industrial Revolution, but projects like Glasgow’s Smart Canal show that the waterways play as vital a role today as they did 250 years ago. By combining innovative thinking, strong partnership working, and a commitment to doing things differently, Scotland’s canals have been reborn as arteries of regeneration that are bringing health, social and economic benefits to the communities that line their bank and the nation as a whole.

 

Click here to register for the Smart Cities Development Conference. 

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