CUT BOTH WAYS WEBSITE ARCHIVES
The Magazine of the Lichfield & Hatherton
Canals Restoration Trust
Issue No. 29 - AUTUMN 2001
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CUT BOTH WAYS WEBSITE ARCHIVES
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CHAIRMAN’S column
Given the time between the writing of my notes and the time they reach you, the members, it is inevitable that what I say may be overtaken by events. That was certainly the case in our last issue but, at least, we were able to flag up our exciting news on the cover. Now, too much time has elapsed to dwell too long on the decision of Government to change its attitude to the BNRR crossing at Churchbridge. The Trust has enjoyed marvellous national publicity and this, in itself is a great asset.
There can only be a sense of great satisfaction when so much effort suddenly produces the desired result. In this case the satisfaction is twofold. Not only has the Trust ensured that the route of the Hatherton through Churchbridge has been protected (and the infrastructure put in place), but there has been a firm statement from the Government that crossings must be provided for all other waterways deemed capable of restoration (although this had already been stated in the daughter white paper). We all owe a great debt of gratitude to those dedicated members of the Trust Council who have worked tirelessly to achieve this result. I also pay tribute to the work of David Suchet, Chris Coburn and many others who have worked tirelessly for our cause.
Even so, we can never afford even a brief moment of respite. The culvert issue was only one among many. Anyone driving along the A5 will be aware of the great pace with which earth is being moved. We now move on to the aqueduct over the Lichfield Canal near Muckley Corner where time is pressing in on us. We have money from the Manifold Trust which will enable us to do a considerable part of the work but not enough to complete the full structure. We have to have plans drawn and accepted by December this year to ensure that much of the structure can be incorporated into the building schedule. Happily, we are now enjoying a greatly improved level of co-operation from the Highways Agency, Midland Expressway and the building consortium (CAMBBA).
Another vital area in which we must continue to work hard is with fund-raising. There is a danger that people will feel that the task is complete, now that the culverts will be built and the aqueduct can be partly funded. Sadly, this is very far from being the case. The David Suchet Appeal has gone very well indeed but we need £40,000 to bring it to the target we set in January. We have many other projects which need further funding. We still need every penny we can raise.
I am pleased that my appeal for more volunteers has brought forth a small number of offers of help. We intend to follow these up in the near future but we need every person we can find. Meanwhile, we can now report that we have over 1000 members signed up. It is very encouraging that we have had so much support from the Waterways Trust and British Waterways and we are now entering discussions to try to draw up a formal partnership with B.W.
We can look back on 2001 with some satisfaction but not with complacency. There are very many difficult tasks ahead but I remain confident that we will tackle them with vigour and go forward into the new year with courage and confidence.
Meeting Place
For many years the Trust has held its monthly Council meetings in the conference room of the British Waterways offices at
Fazeley. Provided free of charge, this has been an ideal location with a large board-room table for spreading out documents;
but no longer, as increased work-load has compelled BW to convert it to office use. We are most grateful to BW for having let
us use their facilities for so long.
Staffordshire University - Lichfield Campus have kindly agreed to let us use one of their rooms from next month.
Patrick Harrison
Our Vice-President, David Suchet has found us a professional fund-raiser and has very generously funded his services.
Patrick spent three days in Lichfield in early October to acquaint himself with all aspects of the project. He visited both
canals, met the Directors and at the October meeting of the Trust Council explained what he hopes to be able to do. We now
look forward to his report and being able to build on the advice he will offer. We are very grateful to Bob and Sue Williams
and to John and Janette Horton for helping with Patrick's visit.
Brian Kingshott
VICE-CHAIRMAN’S NOTES
I make no apology for the fact that these notes are again dominated by the BNRR issue. It remains both our greatest problem and our greatest opportunity, but it is also now our greatest success.BIRMINGHAM NORTHERN RELIEF ROAD
The wonderful news about the Government's last minute intervention to secure the Hatherton Canal culvert under the BNRR came
just in time for a modified front page to our last magazine, but the Stop Press article was inevitably brief and I am sure
that our members would like to know more about what has been achieved and what still remains to be done. Many of you will by
now have read more about the announcement in the various waterways magazines, and those in the area may also have seen the
good coverage in our local newspapers, but now a fuller story can be told.
HATHERTON CANAL CULVERTS
What the Government has done is to issue instructions, through the Highways Agency, to MEL and CAMBBA for a "Client's Change"
which requires them to construct Culvert 144 under the motorway and parallel link road to enlarged dimensions to accommodate
the future restoration of the Hatherton Canal at Churchbridge. This involves increasing the height of the culvert to give
sufficient water depth and headroom (1.5 m and 2.44 m respectively), the width already being adequate at 6.4 m to accommodate
both the Wyrley Brook and the canal channel as well as a towpath. Discussions are continuing with CAMBBA about the exact
water level and other details, but the basic design is agreed and construction is expected sometime next spring. The cost has
been estimated at £345,000 which will be funded largely by the Highways Agency, although there may be some BW involvement in
this which we are advised it is best not to enquire too deeply about !
There is no doubt that this would not have happened without the Trust having first reached agreement with CAMBBA for Culvert 155 under the new A5 roundabout and having raised sufficient funds through the David Suchet Appeal and a guarantee through The Waterways Trust to pay for it (£130,000 plus VAT). The cumulative pressure of 4 years of campaigning and the publicity from our securing the first culvert in effect shamed the Government into conceding the second main crossing. It would, however, be misleading to think that we had done it all ourselves. We had some very powerful behind the scenes support from several quarters, and in particular from BW and their Chief Executive David Fletcher, which is an aspect of the story that must remain untold, at least until he retires and writes his memoirs, although we hope that won't be for a long time yet !
This now means that we have secured the two most important road crossings of the Hatherton Canal, without which the route would have been severed and the restoration prematurely terminated. However, this is far from the whole story at Churchbridge where the complexity of the new road intersections requires a total of five crossings to complete a through canal route. We are currently talking to CAMBBA about making provision for the canal in with the Washbrook channel under the new railway bridge, to replace the original route under the railway viaduct alongside the A5, which will be cut off by the motorway and is at present being culverted and infilled. If we can obtain a passage here it will save a major future expense of a new culvert under the railway. A fourth crossing was needed under an Emergency Access road but it has been suggested that this may no longer be required. If it still is then we may need to contribute to its enlargement, although this is a much shorter structure than the others.
Finally, the 'one that got away', or 'a bridge too far', is the crossing of Walkmill Lane. Although we asked CAMBBA at the outset for a design and a price to enlarge it as for C155, in the climate of the time they would not assist and their original design of twin culverts to accommodate only the brook course has since been installed. This leaves us to pick up the future cost of a separate canal culvert which will be much more expensive than just enlarging the smaller ones would have been. This has been immensely frustrating and could have been avoided if the Government had not left it to the 13th hour to intervene, after the deadline for making this change had long since gone. We therefore have to temper our elation with regret about this opportunity missed, but had we been offered at the beginning of the year the prize of securing the two most important crossings and the possibility of two more out of the five, then we would have been reasonably satisfied.
LICHFIELD CANAL AQUEDUCT
Although the Government's press release referred to "a package of measures allowing the canals' restoration to continue" it
offered nothing specific towards providing the aqueduct or other works needed for the Lichfield Canal crossing. Our celebrations
of the Hatherton victory were perhaps muted by the realisation that the design, funding and agreement on construction of the
aqueduct were still down to us to solve. In fact, achieving the Hatherton solution has improved our relations with MEL and
CAMBBA and we are receiving valuable help from the Highways Agency. HA have agreed to issue a draft instruction to build the
aqueduct and have asked CAMBBA for a price. Once the design and costs are agreed HA will issue a formal Client's Change
instruction to build it, or as much of it as we can afford. This will get round the problem of ownership, as it will then
belong to HA which relieves us of the burden of owning and thereby having to insure it. MEL are also considering taking on its
maintenance which would be another burden removed.
We need now to get agreement on the design and costings and to that end we have appointed consultant engineers Maunsell Ltd. to provide design advice, plans and documents for both the aqueduct and the adjacent new deep lock, the design of which needs to be integrated with the aqueduct foundations and eastern abutment. This has now reached Approval In Principle stage but we still have to decide between alternative designs for the aqueduct trough, although the abutments and central pillar are common to each design. CAMBBA propose a composite design, a concrete trough supported on steel beams at the sides, which is consistent with their other bridge designs. MEL favour a steel trough which could be lifted in later with minimum disruption to traffic if finance does not permit its earlier completion. BW favour a concrete trough as all recently constructed aqueducts have been pre-stressed or post-tensioned concrete. Clearly each has different priorities. The Trust's priority is to minimise construction costs and to get everyone to agree on a common solution which CAMBBA can take forward to full design and construction within their ever-shortening timetable.
It would be easier if we had all or more of the necessary finance for the aqueduct. The promised £250,000 from the Manifold Trust will not be enough but until the final design is agreed and costed we can't say how much more we will need. As soon as we know that, we can re-launch the Appeal to a final target. Meanwhile we need to reach the original target in the knowledge that every pound we can spend now on the crossings will save several pounds compared with having to do the work after the motorway is opened.
NEW POLICY AND GUIDANCE
Our campaign for road crossings has, however, achieved even more than just protection of the Hatherton Canal route, it has
brought about a fundamental shift in Government policy which will prevent this situation ever occurring again and ensure the
protection of all other viable waterway restoration projects from road building. In future, road schemes must take waterways
restoration opportunities fully into account at the planning and design stages and provide bridges or diversions wherever
necessary to prevent any obstruction to the waterway. This is being effected by issuing new Policy Advice and amendments to
the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges. The new policy was announced in the same press release as the Hatherton culvert and
the two decisions are inter-linked.
IWA and others have been pressing for this policy change for many years, since the campaign for the Latton culvert on the Thames & Severn Canal. Indeed, an early draft of viability criteria was included in our evidence to the BNRR Public Inquiry in 1994/5. However, despite support from the inland waterways section, the highways civil servants endlessly delayed progress until the pressure from our situation finally forced the Government to act. To change Government policy in this way is no mean achievement for a small group of volunteers, although we stand on the shoulders of the many other campaigners who have fought similar battles over the years to protect their waterways from destructive road schemes.
The news about the new policy and its application to the Hatherton Canal was contained in a joint DTLR and DEFRA press release titled "Joined-Up Thinking Will Benefit Our Waterways" dated 17th July which, because of its momentous importance we reproduce in these pages (Click here). BW and The Waterways Trust jointly welcomed the announcements in their press release of 18th July, and gave additional details such as the cost of the culvert being £345,000, and IWA chipped in with its press release of 23rd. Our own press release of 20th July titled "Hatherton Canal Breakthrough - Great News For The Waterways" is also reproduced here (Click here) and was extensively quoted from in articles in the waterways magazines.
It is very pleasing to see another early beneficiary from this new policy with the announcement of £300,000 of Government funding going into providing for a bridge on the Manchester & Salford Inner Relief Road over the entrance to the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal, which will undoubtedly give that restoration scheme a deserved boost. We look forward to many more such decisions in the future, including of course provision of a bridge for the Hatherton Canal under the M6 at Calf Heath when its proposed widening goes ahead, and full provision for the Lichfield Canal restoration in the design of the Lichfield Southern By-pass.
To those who ask "How did you do it ?" I have to admit that I'm not sure ! We and our supporters wrote letters, lobbied MPs, publicised the cause far and wide and benefited from the rapidly changing perception of waterways from just being a legacy from the past to having exciting potential for the future. We set balls rolling in all directions and where they went was often out of our control and sometimes not even known to us. We engaged the full support of the waterways movement in a cause célébre and eventually elevated our problem to an issue of national significance. We started this because we felt passionate about the restoration of our waterways and aggrieved at the injustice of the Public Inquiry victory being snatched away by an ill-advised Minister. We ended up with a new Government policy and a level of support for the waterways never before seen.
For a time it seemed that ours would be the only scheme not to benefit from this change, and we have still got only part of the works recommended by the Inspector and have to fund the rest ourselves. Although the Hatherton is saved for restoration, we still have a lot to do to prevent the BNRR adding to our difficulties and costs on both canals. Even if we can solve the other crossings at Churchbridge and build the Lichfield aqueduct, we will not have restored anything, merely prevented additional blockages. There is still an immense amount to do, but when the BNRR problems are finally out of the way we will at last be able to concentrate on a forward strategy for achieving the restorations instead of just fighting a rearguard action.
To all those who have helped us along the way, a very heartfelt thank-you. To those who have not yet contributed to the
David Suchet Appeal, may we ask you to consider helping us now in our final push to build not only the Hatherton culverts but
also the Lichfield aqueduct as a very visible monument to the new future for our waterways.
Philip Sharpe MARKETING REPORT This time of year one tends to look back at the last few months and review what has taken place,
and also plan for next year. Since I last wrote for 'Cut Both Ways' it is almost unbelievable the advances that have been
made to secure the culverts at Churchbridge and the aqueduct on the Lichfield Canal. Much of this was due to the high profile
given to our campaign by David Suchet and our appeal for funds for the culverts.
Our first major outing of the season for the marketing promotion stand was at the Crick Boat Show. This was guaranteed to
be a success with the attendance of David Suchet who opened the event. Much of his opening speech concentrated on our
restoration and the appeal for funds, several buckets were passed round and the visitors invited to contribute! David Suchet
also spent time on our stand autographing photographs of himself - for a fee, of course! The net result was over £1800 was
added to our appeal.
That same weekend a separate team visited the 'Lichfield Bower' and raised £327 in just a few hours on Bank Holiday Monday.
Our next outing was at the Inland Waterways Exhibition at the National Indoor Arena alongside the canal in Birmingham.
This is the second year of this new event on the calendar and is proving to be very popular with boaters. We had two teams of
people at this event, one inside and one outside and grossed £1,886 including seven new members and many more were promising
to join!
One week later we were at the Lichfield 'Medieval Market' - our local event. The weather was kind and we had an enjoyable
day, also passing over £500 to our Treasurer.
Saturday, 28th July saw as on the 'Charity Stall' at Walsall Market selling donated bric-a-brac. By lunch time we had sold
out so we packed up and went home having raised nearly £200.
At the end of August over the Bank Holiday weekend was the Inland Waterways Association National Festival at Milton Keynes,
where we had hired space in one of the marquees. This is always a very social event as well as being hard work for all the
volunteers. Over the four days we grossed over £1,000 but more importantly recruited 13 new members.
The 'Black Bottoming' Draw, kindly donated by Streethay Wharf, raised £260 toward the Suchet Appeal.
By the time you read this we will also have visited the BCN Bonfire Rally and had our Social Evening at Tamworth Cruising Club.
One of the things that has made all this effort worth while is the amount of people who have come onto the stand and
commented on how hard the LHCRT bunch all work! Many thanks to all our volunteers who have helped throughout the year,
willingly, cheerfully, and enthusiastically!
Derek S Beardsmore
Marketing Director
The L & H CRT Stand at the I.W.A. Festival at Milton Keynes
(photo Derek S Beardsmore)
Our press reports this time cover the period from 5th July to 12th October. Back in early July
it was a case of "Lichfield & Hatherton still in the balance" as reported by Canal Boat, and the August editions of all three
waterway magazines featured pictures of David Suchet opening the Crick Boat Show wearing an L&H shirt and vigorously promoting the Trust.
The good news about the Government's funding for the Hatherton Canal culvert and their new policy on other canal crossings
was released on 17th July and hit the headlines first in the Birmingham Post with "Canal is to tunnel through BNRR". That
evening the Express & Star announced "Cash to save canal network", followed over the next few days by "Canal project U-turn"
and "U-turn over canal projects". The local press soon picked up the story with "Canal restoration boost" in the Lichfield
Mercury and "Canal Trust's victory in BNRR fight" in the Cannock & Rugeley Chronicle. Local MP Tony Wright's welcome for the
news was reported in the Express & Star as "Welcome for move to protect canals" and in the Rugeley Post as "Water way to
solve problem!".
Waterways World for September devoted a lengthy editorial to "Government waterway guidelines welcomed" and Reflections on
"The delights of being wrong". Canal Boat for September reported "Lichfield and Hatherton saved", and Canal & Riverboat in
October quoted extensively from our press release in "Hatherton Canal breakthrough great news for the waterways".
The good news about Churchbridge only served to highlight the urgent need for agreement and funding for the Lichfield Canal
aqueduct and from July to August the press variously reported "Race to get aqueduct over new road" (Express & Star), "Call to
build aqueduct now" (Post), "Grant for aqueduct" (Post), "Trust appeals for aqueduct help" (Mercury) and "Canal cash floods
in" (Post). John Horton was interviewed twice on BBC Radio WM about the effects of the BNRR on the canals, the second time
just after the Government announcement when he was able to put Lord Whitty on the spot about the need for further help to
secure the aqueduct. News in September that the Government would instruct MEL to build the aqueduct, subject to our funding
it, prompted the optimistic headlines "Canal group wins BNRR battle" (Express & Star), "Aqueduct gets the green light" (Post)
and "Aqueduct joy for canal restoration campaigners". Canal Boat for October also reported "Lichfield aqueduct on the way".
Later, our appointment of Maunsell to undertake design work on the aqueduct and replacement lock was twice featured in the
Mercury as "Canal job firm" and "Canal engineers".
Meanwhile, a grant from the Cadbury Trust towards work on Lock 26 was publicised in the Post in July as "Grant aids canal
work" and in Waterways World for October as "Grant for Lichfield". Further coverage of the LHI grant for towpath wall
rebuilding was given by Canal & Riverboat in September.
David Suchet's support for the Trust prompted another glossy magazine article on his passion for the waterways titled "A
case of the canals" in Select magazine for July/August, with colour pictures of David and some of our campaigners. The
recruitment of our 1,000th member gained publicity in September with "Trust thanks Poirot for canal milestone" in the Express
& Star and "Canal Group hits 1,000 members" in the Chronicle, and prompted a feature article on the Trust in the Post
titled "Putting our city on the national canal map". Further coverage of our membership milestone was given by "Canal plan is
on course" in the Mercury in October and by "Trust membership grows" in Waterways World for November, which also included a
review of The Missing Links video headed "Suchet And See"!
Phil Sharpe
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