More boats and barges should be seen on the River Lea in London after the opening today of Three Mills Lock.

This is the first new lock to be built in London for more than 20 years and  today being World Environment Day it was appropriate that Environment Secretary Hilary Benn should perform the opening ceremony. He is also staying in office as part of the reshuffled cabinet.

“We want the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to be the greenest games ever” he said. “Funding the Three Mills Lock will not only take many lorries off local roads, reducing thousands of tonnes of CO2 and local congestion, it will also provide a green freight route for the redevelopment of East London, and open up the waterways for boaters, walkers, and cyclists.”

The lock is just east of Three Mills and on the Prescott Channel which is part of the Bow Back Rivers network threading through the Olympic Park. It’s a spot which was well-known briefly as the site of the first Big Brother programme. It’s also where stones from the Euston Arch was dumped and thanks to this work they have been retrieved.

The footpath linking Three Mills to Three Mills Lock is currently closed.