Anglers are casting doubts on a massive construction project that would see the restoration of a once thriving commercial waterway into the heart of Belfast.

Plans to re-open the Lagan Canal to navigation could threaten key wildlife species that now thrive in the existing waterway, anglers have warned.

They said that when the canal was abandoned in the 1950s, wild salmon and trout that had thrived in the River Lagan before parts of it were canalised in the 1800s began returning to spawn.

But the salmon and trout fisheries that now thrive there could be threatened if the canal is restored to navigation, according to Iveagh Angling Club.

A huge plan costing millions would eventually allow the re-opening of the Lagan Navigation, with EC Inter-Regional funding mooted for part of the costs of the massive building construction project.

Belfast City Council which is set to join with the Lisburn City Council in the plans want to replace the pen weir at Stranmillis with an iconic gateway lock, cascade weir and pedestrian bridge if the funding can be secured.

The River Lagan and canal system could then allow access right from Belfast and the Lagan Weir through to Lough Neagh and the old Ulster Canal towards Lough Erne, which is already re-connected to the massive Shannon system.

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An economic appraisal of the first step, opening the Lagan Weir through to Edenderry is now in progress, but Iveagh Angling Club insisted that no business plan has been put in place for the re-opening of the full route and a full Environment Impact Assessment is needed to assess the effect that the project will have on salmon, sea trout and brown trout populations.

The club owns and leases sections of the Lagan and has worked to restore the river as a habitat for the re-introduction of salmonids into the system.

However, this currently successful salmonid fishery is under threat from the proposed Canal works with around 20 kilometres so far been identified for development under the scheme.

Works will include extensive dredging and river straightening which threatens existing spawning beds and habitat.

However, while the Lagan Canal Trust, set up to coordinate the restoration, insists no works have started on any section, anglers claim that development has already begun on Lock III on the Lagan Canal Belfast with improvement work on the Belfast City Council Stranmillis weir and Lagan Gateway Project soon to get under way.

The fishermen want a commitment that an Environmental Impact Assessment would be a necessary pre-requisite to any works to restore the river to navigation and full consultation with angling and all other relevant interests would be an essential part.

As well as Belfast City Council and Lisburn City Council, the other partners in the project are Castlereagh Borough Council, Craigavon Borough Council, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency – Built Heritage, the Department for Culture Arts and Leisure, the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland, the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland – Lagan Branch, the Ulster Waterways Group and the Countryside Access and Activities Network.

There have been numerous appraisails of the Lagan project, with the most recent, last year being an Economic Appraisal of the proposed Lagan Navigation Project

Stranmillis to Edenderry, by FGS McClure Watters for Belfast City Council.

See: www.lagancanaltrust.org/

(BMcC/GK)