A RIVER trust says it has been given funding to remove a disuse weir on a Cheshire river on the outskirts of Whitchurch.

Mersey Rivers Trust has a grant of around £52,000 from the European Open Rivers Programme to carry out work to remove the disused Gas House Weir on the River Duckow on the Shavington Estate near Adderley, south of Audlem.

The River Duckow is a 14km long river in the Upper Weaver catchment in south Cheshire and is home to a variety of coarse fish, small trout and salmonids, which support small angling clubs along its length.

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The river also provides a linking corridor between the mosaics of ancient woodland and threatened traditional meadow habitats along its length.

John Sanders, co-director at the Mersey Rivers Trust, said: “We are delighted to have secured funding from the European Open Rivers programme and be part of an ambitious programme across Europe to open up rivers for fish movement.

“We are very grateful for the full support from Shavington Estate and the funding from the European Open Rivers programme.

“Together we can now start to improve fish life in the River Duckow.”

The power of the River Duckow has historically been used in the gas producing industry, which supplied gas to local homes during the 1800s for a brief period of time before production was abandoned.

The weir is too high for fish to be able to swim over it and move upstream in the River Duckow to reach their spawning grounds.

A trust spokesman added: “Removing the weir will undoubtedly cause changes in flow and water levels.

“This will enable the river to take back its natural processes of erosion and deposition, reducing siltation upstream and erosion downstream of where the weir currently is.

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“As a result, the River Duckow will become more resilient to flooding.

“In addition, there may be some river restoration opportunities identified as part of this work that will support moving the Duckow from poor to good ecological status, and these may form a basis for future grant bids.”

The Mersey Rivers Trust is a charity focused on improving rivers for people and wildlife. It has an ambitious 30-year fish improvement strategy for all the Mersey rivers, including the River Duckow.