with the passing of the land drainage act 1930, the welland catchment board was created. they had spent £91,537 on the outfall by 1937. towards the end of the second world war, e. g. taverner, the chief engineer for the drainage board, devised a plan to relieve flooding in spalding by creating a bypass channel, and building the greatford cut to divert the waters of the west glen river into the welland upstream of market deeping. the scheme cost £723,000, with much of the work being carried out by w. & c. french, and the coronation channel around spalding was opened in september 1953. fulney lock was constructed at the same time to exclude the tide from the upper river, as was the maxey cut, an embanked channel that bypasses the villages of market deeping, deeping gate and deeping st james. during the 1960s and 1970s, several sections of the river above stamford were made straighter and deeper, to reduce the risk of flooding of agricultural land. to address the habitat and environmental issues causes by such engineering work, the welland rivers trust, a limited company and charitable trust, was set up in 2010. they are seeking to direct regeneration of the river by co-ordinating various organisations, which are known collectively as the welland valley partnership. they published a major document outlining their proposals in february 2013.