CUT BOTH WAYS WEBSITE ARCHIVES
The Magazine of the Lichfield & Hatherton
Canals Restoration Trust
Issue No. 30 - WINTER 2002
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CUT BOTH WAYS WEBSITE ARCHIVES
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CHAIRMAN’S column
| It comes as a shock for me to realise that I have now entered my third year as Chairman of the Trust. I know that time seems to move faster as we grow older but in this case I plead mitigating circumstances. I, and all Directors, hit the ground running at about that time as the challenges associated with the BNRR (now known as M6 Toll) crowded in on us. Despite all our best efforts we have been crisis-led throughout that time and even now the culverts at Churchbridge and the aqueduct near Muckley Corner still loom large on the daily agenda. Lady Eden said, during the Suez Crisis of 1956, that she felt that the canal was flowing through her drawing room and I think many of us can see the rising waters of our canals lapping at our feet beneath the breakfast table. We do not ask for sympathy, only continuing support. We are all volunteers who cheerfully rise to the challenge. |
Even so, we must look to the future on a wider horizon. After such a long period when we have been preoccupied with tactics the time has come to look at strategy as well. We need to recall the purpose for which the Trust was established and look again, in a measured way, at how we hope to achieve that purpose in the years ahead. With that in mind, we have embarked on a major consultation of how we work and how we hope to work in the future. We have a great deal to do to put basic building blocks in place so that we know both where we are going and how we hope to get there. We need policy documents and plans of many kinds and we need to be able to express our hopes and aspirations in a cogent way.
Over the years, inevitably the Trust has evolved and changed. We are now accepted as a having a serious and achievable purpose, both nationally and locally. Particularly in Lichfield, the restoration is seen as potentially valuable to the local community socially, economically and in the development of tourism. We are pleased that local people have begun to see this as "their" canal. This is welcome and to be encouraged. On the Hatherton we have a way to go to achieve this level of acceptance and support. We hope that the Forum to be held in Cannock in January will start to address this balance. (We look forward to meeting David Suchet again.) At the national level we are quoted as being a major restoration project likely to be realised in the medium term. We are excited that we are about to start discussing a formal partnership with British Waterways and The Waterways Trust - certainly a vital building block.
However, let us not forget our roots. We were founded as the outcome of successful rallies held at Pelsall in the 1990s and were originally branded as "The Northern BCN Initiative" We were dedicated to the restoration of both canals as a potential through route from Huddlesford to Calf Heath but with the essential purpose of helping to regenerate the Wyrley and Essington corridor. We were as much about bringing new life to the Black Country as about bringing boats back to Cannock and Lichfield. Our enthusiasm for this is undiminished and we are delighted to have drawn other communities into this vision.
Our work is not done, it is hardly started. We need more support and more help. We are re-launching the David Suchet Appeal which has enabled us to deal with the culverts at Churchbridge but which will soon be needed to enable us to build the aqueduct on the Lichfield Canal and I do urge members to support this generously. We have just this one small window of opportunity to take the Lichfield canal across M6 Toll at a reasonable cost and we must stretch our resources to do this.
Finally, I commend to you two important events. The Cannock Forum will be held on Wednesday 30th January and we would like to fill the hall just as we did at Lichfield. The Canal Walk will be held on Sunday, 21st April from Fosseway Lane to Huddlesford (we hope to see David Suchet on that day as well). Details appear elsewhere in this magazine. Please support both events if you can.
Brian Kingshott
VICE-CHAIRMAN’S NOTES
| M6 TOLL
The Trust has recently changed its registered office address. Since our formation we have used the offices of Shakespeares Solicitors in Birmingham, courtesy of Nick Grazebrook, and Shakespeares have been very helpful to the Trust with document storage, legal services and accounts, particularly in our earlier years. However, Nick's retirement and changes associated with Shakespeares' own move of office necessitated the Trust finding a new company address. The Inland Waterways Association have generously agreed at short notice to our using their Head Office address in Rickmansworth and the formalities have now been completed. IWA already provide this service free to a number of other waterway groups and will forward any correspondence received. The registered address should not, however, be used for normal correspondence which should continue to be sent to the Chairman or other directors or officers as appropriate. | 
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DIRECTORS
In another change to responsibilities, Rob Davies has taken on the development of a Strategic Policy in conjunction with
Mike Smith, as a follow up to the Patrick Harrison report, with a view to our adopting a longer term strategy once the
'fire-fighting' issue of the BNRR is resolved. This means that we now have no-one overseeing fund-raising, a vital role,
although several directors are involved with different applications. Our forthcoming AGM provides an opportunity to increase
the number of active directors or officers and if any member can offer us some assistance in this area, or in other ways,
they would be most welcome.
HATHERTON PROGRESS
As part of our contribution to maintaining the towpath for access we had to urgently replace our wheeled strimmer earlier
this year, the previous one having been worked to death, and we have now been granted £671 towards this from The Waterways
Trust through their Small Grants Scheme.
IWAAC REPORT
The categorisation used has been substantially altered from the first report and is now largely based on progress with
preliminary work such as engineering, environmental and economic studies, summarised into 4 categories of Funding Stage reached:
Advanced (1), Substantial Progress (2), Intermediate (3), and Early (4). The Hatherton is one of 18 schemes in category 3
but the Lichfield is in the select company of only 7 projects in category 2. Comparison with other schemes can be misleading
without seeing the full report, but there is no doubt that ours have improved their ratings and come out very well in the
assessment. It is now up to us to justify these rankings and take advantage of the favourable status accorded to our canals.
A high priority must be completion of more of the preliminary studies and reports and the establishment of active Partnerships
so that we are better placed to take advantage of available funding opportunities.
The report contains a lot more, summarising developments since 1998 and making numerous recommendations on main issues in
restoration. The report is freely available to public bodies, voluntary organisations, students and other individuals from
the IWAAC office, Tel. 020 7253 1745.
M6 TOLL
CHURCHBRIDGE PROGRESS
It is with regret that we record that Derek Beardsmore resigned as a Director in October after over 4 years on Council
and nearly 3 years as Marketing Director. In that time Marketing has gone from strength to strength and is now a thriving
group contributing significantly to the Trust's income and promotion. Derek and Margaret Beardsmore have together worked
tirelessly for the Trust over many years, being the mainstay of our attendance at numerous events and organising several very
successful social events. We are pleased that they will still be assisting as members of Marketing Group whilst taking a well
earned rest from organisational responsibilities. That task now falls to Michael Brown as the new Chairman of Marketing Group
and Michael will be attending Council meetings whenever possible.
For over a year now we have been waiting for news on the Hatherton Hedgerow Project (see CBW25) so we were relieved to
hear in December that funding has finally been obtained. The original application by The Hedgerow Trust was re-submitted by
British Waterways who have been granted £23,800 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to completely restore the canal hedgerow
between the Roman Way and the M6. An important part of the bid was the voluntary assistance to be provided by the Trust and
in fact we have already completed some substantial areas of clearance to allow the contractors access to the line of the
hedge. With the late start this 'season' there is a need for extra working parties through to April to help clear and burn
the 'brash' produced by the contractors, and more volunteers would be very welcome. See the Working Parties page for more details.
The long-awaited second IWAAC report was published just before Christmas, although dated June 2001. Titled "A Second
Waterway Age: Review of waterway restoration and development priorities" it is an updated version of the Waterway Restoration
Priorities report of June 1998. Whilst one can still fault some details, it has to be said that it is greatly improved, both
in content and presentation, not least because it has a picture of our Darnford Lift Bridge on the cover! More importantly,
the Lichfield and Hatherton Canal (jointly) have been upgraded from Regional to National significance "to reflect their
potential contribution to the regeneration of the northern stretches of the BCN". It is pleasing that this message, which did
not come through in the first report, has now been recognised. We join a select band of 21 projects accorded National status
out of the 104 listed. Showing an awareness of events since the questionnaires were submitted some 18 months ago, the report
also comments "Resolution of BNRR crossings issue together with guidance to prevent highway projects severing restoration
projects welcome" and "Its progress will be materially helped by the resolution of the crossings issue". Particularly helpful
comments are "Partnership of LAs and BW needed if more rapid progress to be shown" and "Local authority support should make
possible .. substantial progress on the Lichfield (and) Hatherton".
The Government announced in November 2001 that the Birmingham Northern Relief Road was being re-named the M6 Toll, although
I suspect it will take more than a name change to bury all the problems it has caused and it will continue to be called BNRR
for some time yet.
After several programme dates had come and gone, construction finally started on our two culverts at Churchbridge in
December, as shown in the picture below. Before Christmas, some of the concrete base slabs were being cast and reinforcement
constructed for the sides. Members wanting to see progress can view the motorway Culvert 144 from the Wyrley Brook Industrial
Estate road off Walkmill Lane, Cannock. However, the roundabout Culvert 155 at Churchbridge was hidden from the A5 Watling
Street behind a mound of earth, although the end of it may become visible as it grows. All the funding for the enlargement of
C155 to navigable depth has now been raised through the David Suchet Appeal and paid over to The Waterways Trust who are
acting as guarantor and making the stage payments.
Concern was expressed by the Environment Agency in October 2001 about the dimensions of C144 being sufficient to discharge floods without frequent overtopping of the canal section. Although CAMBBA agreed to reconsider the hydraulics, they had already started building the culvert before they told us that they had concluded that a full height separating wall was now considered necessary. Although this will prevent navigation being interrupted it will also preclude the tow-path which was always part of our specification. This is very disappointing. Although there will be a public footpath from near the south end of the culvert to the new motorway bridge on Walkmill Lane, it will mean some inconvenience to future navigators. Of more concern, however, is the restricted canal width through the culvert now proposed of 2.4m (8ft) which will add to the problems of negotiating the bends into the culvert at either end. The northern end in particular is very tight against the industrial estate access road. All these are more problems for the future but at least we are getting a route under the motorway, even if it will be more like Dudley than Netherton tunnel! However, the dividing wall is not being constructed at this stage and we hope it may be possible to persuade EA to relax their drainage requirements in future, when there is more data on actual flows available, so that the canal can have a little more of the available width.
We have had less influence on the dimensions of Culvert 144 because we are not paying for that one, and BW have apparently agreed the revised design. The same restrictions should not apply to Culvert 155 where a canal width of 3m (10ft) was agreed with a towpath over the brook channel, easier here because of their relative levels.
AQUEDUCT FUNDING
We have always expected that the Lichfield Canal aqueduct would cost at least twice the £250,000 that has been offered to
us by the Manifold Trust, and once the more critical Hatherton culverts were secured we continued to seek further funding
through the David Suchet Appeal and from other sources. When the design work on the aqueduct was completed for us by Maunsell
we asked them to cost the main components. The estimate, received in November, allowing for all usual overheads was £508,000
for the cheaper Composite trough design and with the abutments limited to the supporting headwalls.
On that basis we have gone ahead with a re-launch of the Appeal to seek to raise a further £250,000 and full page adverts, generously funded by David Suchet himself, will appear in the February editions of the commercial waterways magazines. A revised Appeal leaflet has also been prepared. It is worth recalling that we have in effect already raised over £750,000 made up of £155,000 from the public appeal for the roundabout culvert, an estimated £345,000 from government for the motorway culvert, and the offer of £250,000 from the Manifold Trust towards the aqueduct. Given this success another £250,000 is not impossible, but it is still a lot of money and we do not expect to raise it all through the public appeal so a number of other funding bodies have been approached. Nevertheless the public response is vital and was undoubtedly the main influence in overcoming the Hatherton Canal crisis so we hope that the messages of "two down, one to go" and "help us bridge the gap" may inspire yet more generosity from our supporters.
Unfortunately, this strategy was thrown into confusion just before Christmas when we at last received the requested but
much delayed estimate from CAMBBA of their price for constructing the aqueduct which was about three times the expected
amount. Clearly the anticipated improved level of co-operation following the Hatherton agreements is still illusory and it
appears they are determined to profiteer or to price us out. Urgent steps are being taken to bring together all relevant parties
at a high level to sort something out, but with an artificial dead-line of the end of January it will not be easy. We can only
hope like Mr Micawber that something will turn up ! Whatever happens we will not give up trying to get the aqueduct built
before the motorway is completed at the end of 2003. Your continuing support is vital not only for the funding but also for
what may need to be a renewed political campaign to stop this motorway taking its "Toll" on the Lichfield Canal.
Phil Sharpe
Press & publicity this time covers the period 13th October 2001 to 10th January 2002. The Canal Camp in October was well reported with several colour pictures of the WRG volunteers surfacing the towpath above Lock 25 to complete work on the Local Heritage Initiative funded project. The Express & Star's caption was "On the path to restoration" whilst the Lichfield Post had "Camp at heritage initiative" and the Lichfield Mercury reported "Waterway working". A later double article in the Post pictured the miniature steam roller used to level the path and also the bench donated by The Darwin Walk Trust under the headlines "Roll out the replica" and "Towpath trail restored". The full story of Camp 22 was revealed by an illustrated article in Navvies for December/January, summarised as "highly productive, fun and the weather was great!". (For more pictures of the Canal Camp Click here). Navvies also carried a thank-you letter from the Trust, publicity for the Lichfield Canal Walk and a request for help, and a brief report on wrg North West's weekend visit in November by "Mr Mac" (MBE !).
Meanwhile, the generous loan of an excavator and driver by Chasetown Civil Engineering was recognised by "Canal fans praise firm" in the Express & Star, and the cleared channel below Lock 26 was pictured in Waterways World for January titled "Progress on the Lichfield Canal".
The achievement of our 1,000th member had been recorded by Waterways World in November in "Trust membership grows". "Lichfield and Hatherton supporters honoured" was an editorial in December's Canal Boat & Inland Waterways referring to the Parliamentary Waterways Group reception held to celebrate the achievements of our campaign for provision of road crossings. The same magazine in January updated readers on the complexities of the Hatherton culverts, progress with the Lichfield aqueduct, funding bids and the planned Canal Forum in a news item "L&H gather pace as road works begin". The Canal Forum and progress with the BNRR crossings funding prompted "Canal trust hoped to seek out Poirot star" and "Report on canal progress" in the Express & Star, whilst the support of Michael Fabricant MP was acknowledged in The Post by "Support for aqueduct". "Fundraisers' canal boost" in the Express & Star recorded the £2,000 donated by IWA Lichfield Branch.
"The Missing Links" video about the L & H, produced by Laurence Hogg and narrated by David Suchet, was reviewed by Waterways World in November and by Canal & Riverboat in December. The February editions of the commercial waterway magazines will carry a full page re-launch of the David Suchet Appeal targeted at bridging the gap in funding for the Lichfield Canal aqueduct.
Finally, another plea for copies of any press coverage outside the Lichfield and Cannock areas to be sent to me for our
album and these reports, thanks.
Phil Sharpe
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WORKING PARTIES : FEBRUARY - JUNE 2002 |
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LICHFIELD CANAL
Regular Lichfield work parties are held on the first Sunday of each month from 10 am. working on rebuilding Lock 26 at Tamworth Road, Lichfield. Some additional Saturdays or Sundays are also worked and there are occasional week-end visits from WRG groups. Contact Peter Matthews on 01543-673127 or John Horton on 01543-262466 for further details.
For Tamworth Road Lock 26 (SK 130 083) take the A51 south out of Lichfield, the site is on the right past Cricket Lane. Park by Lock 25 and walk past The Cottage to the entrance track for Lock 26, but please note that the access is across private land and should not be used except on organised work parties.
Monthly work parties: Sundays: 3 February, 3 March, 7 April, 5 May, 2 June.
WRG weekends: 2-3 March (WRG NW), 20-21 April (incl. help with Walk on 21).
HATHERTON CANAL
Regular Hatherton Canal work parties are held on the third Sunday of each month from 10 am. working on towpath maintenance and now assisting with the Hedgerow Project. Some additional week-end or mid-week assistance is needed with hedgerow clearance work up to April. Contact Denis Cooper on 01543-374370 (work) if you can help at any time.
Monthly work parties: Sundays: 17 February, 17 March, 21 April, 19 May, 16 June.
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