Scarisbrick marina ready to open

By Kaye Wiggins

A canal enthusiast is about to open his second waterway development.

Entrepeneur Alan Mawdsley’s £2m Scarisbrick Marina will open at the end of March. It will include moorings for 200 boats, a new footpath bridge, an office and café.

The marina, on the Leeds-Liverpool canal, will be used as a base for boat owners touring the UK’s canal network.

Architectural and planning consultant Graham Salisbury from Graham Anthony Associates, which is in charge of the development, said: “Marinas are very much a niche market, where developments are going well despite the economic climate.

“The construction and manufacturing industries are struggling at the moment. But the leisure industry is still going strong.”

Mawdsley decided to fund the development privately after realising the potential for profitable canalside leisure developments. He also owns the nearby Fettlers Wharf marina on the Rufford branch of the canal, which he opened in November 2003.