LOCALS will soon be striding out on a new path into the town.

Middlewich Vision has secured £185,000 of funding to completely overhaul the canal towpath, making it more accessible for residents to use as a shortcut into town.

Caroline O'Brien, from the Vision, said: "It's terrible at points and the useable surface is possibly only 40cm wide. In parts it's just rubble, stone and mud and is not a nice place to walk along. It's not very safe and if you had any disability it would be very difficult."

The plan is to rebuild the towpath from the junction with the Shropshire Union Canal running northbound for around 1.5km incorporating the particularly bad areas by Town Bridge and the Big Lock.

Kerry Fletcher, canal and salt heritage worker, said: "I was down there recently and had to tread one foot in front of the other because it's that bad."

Caroline is keen to utilise the Middlewich canals and encourage locals to use them more.

"The canal is a great resource and the fact that Middlewich has a canal is a unique point of ours," she said.

"When it's finished people will be able to cycle along there, take a buggy or take the kids down there. It will be a safe place where you can go for a walk and we just want to increase the use of it."

The town has secured £50,000 from the Weaver Valley fund, £110,000 from community funding following the Finney's Lane housing development and £25,000 from Waste Recycling Environment Limited (WREN).

Engineers are due to start drawing up designs next month and the work is expected to be underway by winter.