MEMBERS of the Cotswold Canals Trust are celebrating the completion of the first stage of the restoration of the Stroudwater Navigation canal. Less than one year since the first spade went into the ground, a new canal channel through the A38 Whitminster roundabout has been constructed. The channel is part of the restoration works of the Stroudwater Navigation canal, which will allow the reopening of a section of waterway which was lost when the A38/A419 roundabout and M5 were built in the late 1960s west of Stonehouse. “We will soon be able to begin the rest of the restoration of Stroudwater Navigation, linking our beautiful landscape with the rest of the UK’s inland waterways network, said Aimee-Louise Malcolm, Cotswold Canals Trust ambassador.