Bude Canal Dredging Programme Update

Ahead of a public meeting scheduled for 12 January 2023, we’re updating stakeholders and the community about some changes to the timeline for dredging the Bude canal.

Dredging of one section of the Bude canal to the south of Truscott’s Bridge will begin as planned.

The start date for dredging the commercial lower zones of the canal has been rescheduled for later in the year to mitigate against any possibility of these major works affecting the town during the busy Easter holiday period.

Dredging the lower zones close to the town will have an inevitable impact and we are constantly reviewing our methods and programme to mitigate and reduce those impacts. Additionally, there are ecological constraints in the canal to consider. Taking all these factors into account, the window for completing all the dredging work this side of Easter is small.

For these practical reasons, dredging in the lower zones will now start when temperatures drop again later in the year, which is a constraint due to the presence of invasive non-native zebra mussel in the lower sections and is part of our environmental consent.

We continue to work hard to deliver the best scheme possible to protect this iconic asset for Bude.

The public meeting on 12 January will go ahead at 1pm Room 4 at the Parkhouse Centre (Bude Stratton Town Council).