New Plans for Mill Barn at Over Canal Basin

NEW Plans for Mill Barn at Over Canal Basin

You may recall the story of the demolition of the former hospital buildings at Over in 1999-200 – demolition that extended to the Mill Barn as that lay in the way of the new noise bund and screening for the development. As the barn was just going to be flattened where it stood we offered to take it down carefully for the developer and we put as much as was re-usable into storage on site.

It has ever since been a long term objective to rebuild the barn on site. These plans for the proposed replacement Mill Barn have now been drafted, discussed with our local volunteers and put before the Stauntons Hill Residents at their Annual Residents’ Association meeting in April when the proposals were well received. The final paperwork to support a Planning Application is now being put together so that we may submit this later in the year.

The reconstructed Mill Barn will provide for the long-term maintenance needs of the Canal Trust. It will allow us to replace ageing equipment with more suitable professional equipment for the maintenance and upkeep of the Canal providing it with both secure storage and somewhere for it to be maintained.

Crucially it will replace all of our current shipping containers on site and see the site hut and site toilet replaced with proper facilities for both the Trust volunteers and the other users of the Canal basin who have made it their home – the Gloucester & District Model Boat Club and Gloucester Disabled Rowing and Sailing Group. The loft space will provide a crucial meeting room which we are currently lacking and considerably enhanced office facilities to enable the Legal & Project Development Team to meet the demands upon them both to directly take the Canal forward and to work with our partners to help deliver the Canal.