The Waterways for All project is transforming the miles of canals in the West Midlands into high-quality, publicly-accessible and environmentally-important routeways that connect and engage with communities who previously avoided using the towpaths. The project has won a Green Flag Award, meaning that it reaches a nationally recognised environmental standard which has prompted the Trust to roll this out to the whole canal network in the West Midlands.

Recognising the importance of canals as publicly accessible waterways in urban areas, the judges commented that “every time we connect people to use these canals it’s a good thing” and praising it for “bringing new stretches of canal into the Green Flag scheme to ensure continued maintenance”. Another judge noted that because canals “cross all sorts of boundaries between different local authorities and land owners, it’s incredible to see how the Trust have worked collaboratively” and that “engaging with many different communities who wouldn’t ordinarily use the canals has been really powerful”.