A WATERWAY has reopened after more than £1million was spent on repairs and improvements in just 12 months.

The Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation was fully opened again after Essex Waterways carried out its largest ever programme of renovations.

The work included the Environment Agency replacing a 220-year-old channel, known as a chunker, which was in danger of collapsing and causing flooding in Heybridge.

The chunker was built to channel streams beneath the navigation.

Now a new concrete piping has been installed at a cost of £750,000 and will be maintained by Essex Waterways.

Essex Waterways chairman Roy Chandler said: “The Navigation has probably never been so well used by so many people.

“This all takes a great deal of work to keep up with the maintenance and the ongoing support of councils, the Environment Agency, Essex and Suffolk Water and other organisations is vital.”

Bank repairs at Beeleigh Lock was another part of the improvements funded mainly by Essex and Suffolk Water.

The Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation makes up the canal system between the Rivers Chelmer and Blackwater and runs for 22 kilometres from the Springfield Basin in Chelmsford to the sea lock at Heybridge Basin.