From John Knapp
Sunday, 18 October 2009

The Rochdale Canal is having its towpath resurfaced with black tarmac. Significant stretches have already been done further down the valley and the intention seems to be to carry on until the money runs out. Whatever your views may be on the use of tarmac for a rural setting, it seems to have escaped the notice of British Waterways that large sections of the canal bank have collapsed into the water. In the upper valley it is getting quite dangerous when nearly half the towpath width is in the water. I do hope that Calderdale's Highways Dept is not going to spend money on resurfacing these lengths where the priority should be rebuilding the towpath.

From Andy M
Monday, 19 October 2009

John, is it Calderdale council or BW who are tarmacing it?

From John Knapp
Sunday, 18 October 2009

Hello Andy; It is Calderdale Council Highway's dept that is actually doing the work, in partnership with British Waterways. The aim is to make a Calder Valley greenway - an off road multi user route. Whilst the towpath undoubtably needs a better surface and is nearly unusable in wet weather, there is an issue about tarmac being used on rural paths. British Waterways have a project officer (jo.keegan@britishwaterways.co.uk) who is the contact for this work. Unless substantial money is spent on repairing the towpath retaining wall in the upper valley it will soon be unsafe for anyone to use the towpath; Greenway will be soon be Unsafeway.