Impact of litter on canal towpaths

Approximate read time: 10 minutes

On 20 November 2025, the House of Lords will consider the following question for short debate:

Lord Evans of Rainow (Conservative) to ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact that litter on canal towpaths owned and maintained by the Canal and River Trust is having on urban communities.

1. Managing canal towpaths: The Canal and River Trust

A canal towpath is a road or path that runs alongside an inland waterway.^[1]

In England and Wales, most towpaths are managed by the Canal and River Trust, a charity established in 2012 responsible for maintaining the navigability and safety of more than 2,000 miles of inland waterways. Its responsibilities include bank repairs, dredging, managing waterside vegetation, rebuilding bridges and locks, and repairing or resurfacing towpaths.^[2] Schedule 2 of the trust’s original grant agreement lists permitted activities, such as litter management, and section 89 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 places a duty on the trust to keep land it is responsible for clear of litter and refuse.

In 2024/25 the trust reported spending over £1.7mn emptying bins and skips, and dealing with litter, fly-tipping and hazardous waste.^[3]

Over the same period, the trust said it collected 6,832 tonnes of waste.^[4] Of this waste, it stated approximately 6,691 tonnes (98%) was recycled or “recovered through waste to energy” and 141 tonnes (2%) was sent to landfill.^[5]

2. Impact of litter on canal towpaths

When litter is left on canal towpaths, it can cause harm to wildlife and habitats, create public health and safety risks, and impose costs on managing organisations and local communities. These impacts are as follows:

• Environmental impacts: Plastic and other waste can be ingested by or entangle wildlife and contribute to habitat degradation. Accumulated litter can also reduce water quality and impact bank and reedbed conditions.^[6]
• Public health and safety risks: Dog waste near waterways can present health hazards.^[7] Additionally, debris in channels or drains can obstruct water flow and clog locks and other canal infrastructure.^[8]
• Economic costs: Collecting, removing and disposing of litter generates costs for managing organisations and local communities. For example, the Canal and River Trust estimates that dredging costs approximately £100 to £200 per cubic metre depending on certain variables, such as the use of specialist equipment and paying landowners for access or to deposit or spread sediment on their land.^[9]

3. Funding for the trust

When the trust was created in 2012, the then government provided a 15-year grant of around £740mn and a £460mn property endowment.^[10]

From 2021 to 2023, Defra conducted a review to determine whether the grant funding had provided value for money, and if there was an “ongoing requirement” for the government to fund the trust from 2027.^[11] The review concluded that the grant had “so far demonstrated value for money” and that future government funding would “continue to deliver significant public benefits”. However, the government stated that, “consistent with the policy intention when the Canal and River Trust was created”, it should “go further in moving them into a position of reduced reliance on government funding”. Therefore, the government announced that Defra would provide over £400mn of ongoing funding for the trust from 2027 to 2037. This would embed a “5 percent a year downward taper over 10 years”, starting from £50mn and ending at £31.5mn in nominal terms.

The then Conservative government explained the funding situation for the trust in a House of Commons debate on 9 November 2023.^[12] Then parliamentary under secretary of state for natural environment and land use Trudy Harrison said:

The Canal and River Trust was set up in 2012 as a charity independent of government. The idea was to replace the publicly owned British Waterways and free it from public spending constraints. The trust owns and manages a network of some 2,000 miles of canals and rivers in England and Wales. The original endowment in 2012 was £450mn, but it is now worth £1bn. From 2027, £400mn is proposed to be granted over a 10-year period. We will continue to support the Canal and River Trust, but we certainly encourage it to work with others to make the most of the commercial opportunities as well.

Now that the trust is free of public sector financing constraints, it can source alternative revenue streams, including charitable donations and legacies, charity tax relief, third-party project funding and borrowing on the financial markets, while continuing to receive a substantial government grant. […]

An important part of the 2012 transfer from British Waterways was the memorandum of understanding signed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the trust, which contained a clear objective that the trust would progressively move towards greater self-sufficiency and reduced reliance on public funding, through its £1bn property and investment portfolio and freedom from public sector financial constraints.

However, the July 2023 funding announcement was criticised by the Canal and River Trust and the Inland Waterways Association, a charity campaigning for British canals and river navigations. Speaking to BBC News in July 2023, the trust’s chief executive, Richard Parry, stated that the government’s decision “leaves a substantial funding shortfall which puts decades of restoration and recovery of these much-loved historic waterways at risk”.^[13] Also speaking to BBC News, the Inland Waterways Association volunteer task party joint team leader in Northampton, Geoff Wood, said that funding cuts would result in volunteers “probably being asked to do more” and that “in maybe 10 years’ time you [will] start to see certain canals close because they cannot be maintained”.^[14]

Highlighting fly-tipping and funding challenges, the Canal and River Trust has removed bins from multiple canal towpaths, including sections of the Regent’s Canal in London and the Kennet and Avon Canal in Somerset. This has prompted local concerns about increased fly-tipping, litter and pollution.^[15]

4. Government position

The government has recently been asked to assess the Canal and River Trust and its decision to remove litter bins from some canal towpaths. During the committee stage of the Environmental Targets (Public Authorities) Bill [HL] in the House of Lords on 13 June 2025, Lord Evans of Rainow (Conservative) moved an amendment to add the trust to the bill’s list of public authorities, which would subject it to provisions of the Environment Act 2021 and place on it additional waste-removal duties.^[16] Lord Evans argued that:

The central issue is remarkably simple: along miles of urban canal towpaths in England, there are now no public bins at all. There were bins on our urban towpaths until two years ago. Their removal was an active choice by the Canal and River Trust. In a written answer published on 11 April, the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock [a parliamentary under secretary at Defra], confirmed that: “Under section 89 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, the Canal and River Trust has a duty to keep the land they are responsible for clear of litter and refuse”.

The evidence gathered by the cleaner canals campaigners shows that the trust is failing in that duty […] I have tabled this amendment to probe whether an additional duty on the Canal and River Trust might spur it into action.^[17]

Responding, Lord Katz, a government whip, stated that he would bring Lord Evans of Rainow’s comments to the attention of the minister for water and flooding, Emma Hardy, who “has responsibility for the Canal and River Trust in [Defra]”.^[18] Additionally, he described the trust as an “invaluable organisation with which Defra and other government departments work closely” and stated that the government would “continue to collaborate with the trust to ensure that its efforts are best directed and realised, to improve and protect the natural environment for the public”. The amendment was subsequently withdrawn.

More recently, in September 2025, the government was asked in a written question for its assessment of the trust’s decision to remove litter bins from canal towpaths “on the effective management of litter on land owned by the Canal and River Trust”.^[19] Responding, Baroness Hayman noted that the trust was an “independent charity” and “responsible for operational matters on its waterways and land owned by it, including litter management”. The minister reiterated that section 89 of the 1990 placed a duty on the trust to “keep the land it is responsible for clear of litter and refuse”, while leaving it to the trust to “work out how best to comply with the duty”.

5. Read more

• Tom Burgess, ‘New bins installed by river where 50 were scrapped’, BBC News, 23 July 2025
• Jason Hughes, ‘Anger as Canal and River Trust removes bins from canal paths’, Wiltshire Gazette and Herald, 31 August 2023
• Canal and River Trust, ‘Impact report 2023/24’, December 2024

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Image by Kritter Robin on Unsplash.