More moorings on the Macc

MANY boaters have difficulty finding moorings close to Macclesfield town centre on the Macclesfield Canal, so Canal & River Trust will shortly be installing new pontoon moorings for visiting boaters.

The 90 yards pontoon will be installed by Bridge 37, by the A537, and is designed to hold six boats.

Ready for new season

Work on the project is due to start in mid March and should be finished before Easter, in time for the start of the 2015 summer cruising season. Following the installation of the moorings, volunteers will be working on a complementary project to improve the local towpath and access to the canal from Buxton Road.

Funding for the £130,000 project has come partly from public donation and partly from the sale of derelict land opposite the new moorings to Adlington, a Cheshire development company, which has planning permission to build 47 ‘extra care' apartments on the site.

Close to town centre

David Baldacchino, Waterway Manager with the Trust, explained:

"Macclesfield is a great place to visit and boaters have said that they'd prefer to be able to moor close to the town centre. With the new moorings in place, it will be much easier for people to stay within walking distance of the town centre, and we expect that local businesses will benefit too.

"Constructing moorings at this point is not a simple job because the canal is too shallow for boats to moor up next to the bank. This means we need to construct a pontoon alongside the bank, adding to the complexity of the project."

It is not known what the time limit will be for boaters mooring on the new pontoon.