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Millennium Link Project

The Millennium Link Project regenerated Central Scotland's principal Lowland Canals - the Forth & Clyde and the Union - and with new dedication to leisure and recreation, wildlife and heritage, provided the impulse for regeneration of a vast area. After ten years of planning activities managed by a partnership of local authorities along the Canal, the establishment of the Millennium Commission in the mid-1990s opened up the possibility of large-scale funding. Led by British Waterways, an ambitious £78m scheme was approved involving a complex partnership of funders. Despite a foreshortened construction schedule, the project was completed to deadline. The Millennium Link was formally opened on 24 May 2002. Then the crucial subsequent phase began: building on the partnerships established and creating a corridor of sustainable opportunity for Central Scotland over the coming years.The real benefits of undertaking the engineering will be new jobs from new canal-side enterprises, bringing vast areas of derelict land back into use, new tourism businesses along the corridor, leisure and tourist visits and promoting social inclusion.

The Jury said:
This project is on an enormous scale even for regional planning. It is daring to use waterways on such a scale as the spatial backbone for interesting social, economic and cultural developments. A most interesting and daring vision of the far future. The implementation will be tested over time.