Perth and Kinross’ provost has suggested reinstating a canal in Perth city centre.
Provost Xander McDade is inspired by Utrecht which recently ripped up a motorway to reconnect a historic section of the Dutch city’s canal.
But the Perth and Kinross councillor insists he is not proposing pulling up tarmac and tearing down Canal Street’s multi-storey car park any time soon and sees it as more of a “long-term” aspiration.
Canal was once in city centre
Despite the name a large number of locals are unaware Perth’s Canal Street was once in fact a canal.
A section of Perth Lade ran along Canal Street, Canal Crescent and South Methven Street from the Tay to the mills.
An information board – sponsored by Perth Civic Trust – placed outside the Lower City Mills on West Mill Street tells this part of the Fair City’s fascinating history in more detail.
The board states: “After passing through the City Mills, a southern spur of the lade flowed south along the line of South Methven Street, around Canal Crescent, and turned east along Canal Street, where small boats were used to offload coal from larger vessels on the Tay, while flour from the mills was also transported.
“A smaller branch of the lade continued south along the line of King Street, across the South Inch, to link up with Craigie Burn. This extension was covered over in 1802.”
Nod to Utrecht
On Saturday, Provost McDade tweeted: “I genuinely think we should reopen the canal under Canal Street in Perth.
“Have some lovely bridges over it and people can walk along next to it. Could be a very nice space for local residents and businesses.”
I genuinely think we should reopen the canal under Canal Street in Perth. Have some lovely bridges over it and people can walk along next to it. Could be a very nice space for local residents and businesses. https://t.co/4j9KOh5E2X
— Xander McDade (@XanderMcDade) January 7, 2023
He was retweeting a tweet which showed the transformation made by such an action in Utrecht in the Netherlands.
The Dutch city recently reinstated a historic section of a canal which had been drained and concreted over in the 1970s to form a motorway.
Conversation needed
On Monday Provost McDade back-pedalled a little on his ambitions.
He confirmed there are no plans to include such a scheme in his Independent group’s forthcoming budget proposals with the idea more of a pipe dream for now.
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “It’s not quite budgeted!
“It would be nice but there are a lot of things that would need to be done. I’m not suggesting we pull down the car park in Canal Street but in the future should we use it less we might turn it into affordable housing.”
He conceded it was simply a talking point for now and added: “We need to have a conversation about how we are going to regenerate the city centre and make it the best place to live and work and for businesses.”
Conversation