Councillors grab a paddle for tour of town's waterways

Two Royal Borough councillors grabbed their paddles and took to the water for a unique tour of the town's waterways.

Cllr Philip Love (Con, Belmont) and Cllr Derek Wilson (Con, Oldfield) teamed up with Engage Watersports and Maidenhead Waterways to explore the Bray Cut, which connects the town centre channels to the Thames by Bray Marina.

The group saw where the Stafferton Way link road will cross over Moor Cut, the rear of the new Oldfield School site off Bray Road and splashed past the Bray Fields site of special scientific interest.

Although the channels are overgrown, they remain up to 14m wide in places and Maidenhead Waterways plans to clear and restore the lower channels once work to create a navigable ring of water around the town centre has been completed.

Maidenhead Waterways trustee Alasdair Pettigrew, who took part in the tour on Saturday, May 17, said: "Work on stage one of the town centre 'ring' is due to commence this year.

"In the meantime we want to encourage residents and others to make greater use of the lower waterway, which has some lovely stretches of water, and is already usable by canoes and other small boats."