In the Winter Issue I was forced to hedge my bets a little when I wrote about the aqueduct. At that point we were on the brink of a momentous decision but not able to say, publicly, what we intended to do. Happily, the time for action has now passed and we can finally say that we will install the aqueduct trough before the M6 Toll opens. Trust Council, when the moment came, decided that just a little more courage would get us there. On behalf of the Trust I was empowered to sign the documents which committed us to the great deed.

The motorway itself seems to be moving towards early completion. At our own site, just east of Brownhills, progress can be glimpsed through the arch of the new A5 flyover. The eastern abutment seems complete and work is well under way on the western structure. The centre columns, from which David Suchet so memorably waved at the cameras last November, stand proudly between the two embryonic carriageways. It is clear that we must finish the job and do so quickly.

We have ordered Rowecord, of Newport, to fabricate the two sections of the trough. When completed, they will be brought up the M5 and hoisted into place. When this happens all of us can enjoy the spectacle and feel the satisfaction of success in a very long battle. Of course, nothing is certain until the fat lady sings but our hopes are now very high. It is an amazing tribute to the voluntary move-ment that so much money has been raised to achieve all this. I will leave detailed thanks for the days of celebration but we must offer our profound thanks to all who have made this possible. The largest donation has come from the Manifold Trust and there have been other substantial sums given us from other bodies, notably IWA. However, like the widow's mite, we cannot forget the enormous in-flow of contributions from waterways enthusiasts all over the country. All these came together to help us. There are the individuals as well, most notably our Vice-President, David Suchet.

However, then comes the inevitable note of caution. As I write this at the start of April we are still £35,000 short of the total sum that we need in the Suchet Appeal to cover all our costs. Every last contribution is needed to get us there. That said, we have exercised proper caution and are confident that funds will be available to pay for the aqueduct without any threat to our solvency.

We intend to organise suitable events to enable us to celebrate the completion of the aqueduct and we hope to bring you more information next time. We have yet to choose a name for it and we are currently discussing this with our major fun-ders. Inevitably, such events involve Directors and others most closely involved with the scheme but I hope that all our members will share in the sense of well-being and achievement.

VISION The Principal Aims of the Trust, as stated on the Company address page, are derived from our Memorandum of Association. Nowadays it is common to reformulate this as a more inspiring "Vision Statement" and, as part of our work on producing a new Strategy Document for the Trust, your Council have agreed the following succinct wording to help guide us forward and explain to the world what we seek to achieve: "To restore the Lichfield Canal and the Hatherton Canal to re-open waterway links between Staffordshire and the West Midlands, for the benefit of the environment, amenity and prosperity of the people of the region and to enhance the nation's inland waterway system."

SECRETARY
In CBW34 we appealed for a volunteer to take over as Minutes Secretary for the Trust. Sue Williams had been covering this role very ably for some time since Helen Taylor left the area, but wished to be relieved to concentrate on the web site and other matters. It is pleasing to report that we had an instant response, in fact two offers, and as a result Chris Pattison has joined our committee and is al-ready settling in well. As a long-standing member, his local knowledge will help in understanding our sometimes obscure discussions at Council meetings. Those monthly meetings are now being held at Tamworth, courtesy of Tamworth Cruis-ing Club, where we have been made very welcome and are kept well refreshed for the evening. Our Marketing Group continues to meet monthly at the Stafford-shire University Campus in Lichfield, as the recent restriction on meeting hours is less of a problem for them.

GRANTS & DONATIONS
Several applications for grants to the David Suchet Appeal to help fund the Aqueduct for the Lichfield Canal over the M6 Toll motorway have recently come to fruition. Contracts have now been exchanged with the Staffordshire Environ-mental Fund for a grant of £25,000 from Landfill Tax sources, subject to certain conditions, and we are very grateful for this assistance, following their earlier support for the Lift Bridge at Darnford Lane in 1997. The Inland Waterways Asso-ciation has been one of our main supporters for many years and contributed £20,000 towards the culverts for the Hatherton Canal in the first phase of the David Suchet Appeal in 2001. IWA's Restoration Grants Fund has now gener-ously offered us a further £15,000 towards the walkways and erection of the aq-ueduct trough. Local Authorities always seem short of money these days, so their financial support in addition to their planning support is doubly welcome and in-cludes £5,000 from Lichfield District Council and also £2,500 from Staffordshire County Council's Local Member Initiative, recommended by Erica Bayliss, Councilor for Lichfield Rural South. Other donations to the Appeal have included £2,000 from Dudley Canal Trust, £1,300 from Stafford Boat Club, £1,000 each from Braunston Marina, from OwnerShips, from IWA Chester Branch, from Tim & Jacqui Holford, from Sadie Dean, from the George Cadbury Fund and hundreds of other donations. Although space precludes me acknowledging them all indi-vidually here, they are of no less importance to us and our Treasurer has as usual fully listed them on another page.

Protecting the route of our two canals requires constant vigilance, as illustrated by some long running and recent development proposals.

Shorade Accident Repair Centre
The former Armitage Shanks brassworks site on the A460 at Wedges Mills was extended many years ago across the line of the Hatherton Canal, forming the first blockage beyond the end of the existing channel behind the Roman Way Hotel. It is a site that we have long been concerned about, and since it closed in 1996 there have been several proposals for redevelopment. The first planning applica-tion in 1998 by Blue Circle Industries was for retail use with a new building across the canal line, previously only used for parking. We objected and the application was not determined, then taken to appeal, but subsequently dropped. However, in 1999 a new application for a hotel and pub/restaurant still ignored the Hather-ton Canal Protection Line, which is clearly shown on the Local Plan. We objected again and the application was refused. A similar application was resubmitted in 2000 but with an amended layout that finally avoided building over the canal line. However, the canal would be covered by an essential parking area for the hotel and so we again had to object. Disappointingly, Cannock Chase Council approved this application, although as it was only an Outline consent we would have had another opportunity to change the details at the Reserved Matters stage. Fortunately, however, the project never proceeded and the site was subsequently sold on.

In 2002 we were contacted by Mr Cliff Shore whose local property group had acquired the site to expand his Shorade accident repair business in Cannock. Mr Shore was aware of the former canal line and went to some trouble to research old maps to find exactly where it had been, being obscured by up to 2.8 metres of fill tipped after its closure. His first plans for the new building kept off the canal but would have impinged on the original towpath line, and we asked for the building to be slightly repositioned, along with deep foundations and no further raising of the ground levels. Mr Shore helpfully made these alterations, leaving only the question of parking for future resolution. Thus, after many years, a suit-able development has been approved that keeps open this section of the canal route for future restoration and does not increase the existing problems of exca-vation and reinstatement.

Pipehill Bridge
The A461 Lichfield to Walsall road crosses the Lichfield Canal three times and the crossing nearest to Lichfield is at Pipehill Bridge. At this point the canal is right alongside the closed Lichfield to Walsall railway line and the railway section of the combined bridge is a cast iron girder bridge, whereas the canal span is a brick arch. Despite being closed, the railway is not abandoned and there have been many proposals for its reopening. However, the rail bridge no longer meets the increased strength criteria for main road traffic and Birse Rail have recently started work to replace the railway deck. We have sought and been given assur-ances that the work will not affect the canal bridge structure and that working ac-cess will be from the other side and not affect the canal bed. Local road traffic, however, will be disrupted by a 27 day closure in May and the area may be best avoided for the time being.

It is ten years since we held the first meeting in Hatherton Village Hall on a cold night in March 1993, to form the Friends of The Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust. Our aim was to promote and market the Trust and organise social events. I myself saw my role in the Trust as a practical hands on member. Having thirty years experience as a plant operator in the construction industry I thought I would be more usefully employed digging with the monthly work parties. Little did I realise that nine years later I would be persuaded to take on the job of Marketing Group Chairman.

It has been a long hard slog over the last ten years to secure the canal crossings over and under the M6 toll road at Churchbridge and at Brownhills but we are almost there. We now have two culverts in place on the Hatherton Canal and the Aqueduct is almost in place on the Lichfield canal. At the time of going to press we are still £35,000 short of our target to cover the cost of completing the Aqueduct.

Our thanks must go to David Suchet OBE for coming to our aid with the David Suchet Appeal for both the Culverts and the Aqueduct. Our thanks also must go to Sir John Smith of the Manifold Trust for providing £250,000 towards the cost of the Aqueduct. IWA national and regional branches have also donated a total of £50,000 to the Appeal. Without all these donations we could not have overcome our cash problem .

We still have a long way to go with the Restoration and we are looking forward to the next ten years when we must focus on new projects along the route of both canals.

Past Events
Saturday 25th January 2003
Stafford Boat Club held a Pie and Skittles evening and invited members of the Trust along. Bob and Sue Williams attended as representatives of the Trust and were presented with a cheque for £1,300 towards the David Suchet Appeal. We extend our thanks to the club for donating the proceeds of their summer fund-raising to us.

Sat 1st - Sun 2nd February
The OwnerShips Show was held at Braunston Marina.
Brian Kingshott opened the show, standing in for David Suchet who was unavailable. He launched a wide beam boat, naming it Donjeux. Brian was presented with two cheques for £1,000 each towards the David Suchet Appeal. These were from Allen Matthews of Ownerships, and Tim Coghlan of Braunston Marina. Tim also donated £450, the takings from the Day Star Theatre Company performance. Merchandise Sales on the Marketing stand amounted to £250. All in all a very successful week-end for the Trust.

Sat 15th - Sun 23rd February
The Boat, Caravan and Outdoor Show took place at the NEC.
Thanks to Bob & Sue Williams and Rob Davies for all their hard work in organising the L&HCRT Stand. Also thanks go to all the members who helped to man the stand during the week. We enrolled twenty four new members, five new cor-porate members and fourteen renewals. A total net profit of £1,500. Donations of £1,000 each were made to the David Suchet Appeal by Chester I.W.A. and Mr and Mrs. Tim Holford.
Thank you to all who visited our stand and supported us.

Progress with the Aqueduct and its funding inevitably dominates our press and publicity reports this quarter, from January to March 2003, plus news of the Hatherton ERDF grant.

The February edition of Canal Boat & Inland Waterways announced "Last call for M6 aqueduct" and gave readers several ways of making a donation, including online at our web site. It also made clear that the welcome European grant for the Hatherton Canal could not be used out of its own area. IWA's Waterways for February included a lengthy illustrated report in Restoration Update on the ERDF funding, with news of the aqueduct progress. Canal & Riverboat for March gave the background to "David Suchet appeals for L&H aqueduct " with the popular picture of David and Sheila in front of the centre columns holding the 100,000 (£) sign. A picture of the aqueduct construction also made the cover of WRG's magazine Navvies for Feb/March, with a thoughtful editorial on the value of voluntary labour in raising the profile of difficult restorations.

The momentous decision by the Trust to place the order to start constructing the aqueduct trough was marked in February by "M6 Toll road aqueduct gets underway " in The Lichfield Post; by "Plan to restore canal is boosted " in the Express & Star; and by "Water great moment for project " (sic!) in the Lichfield Mercury, with pictures of the centre columns and an aerial view of the site as in CBW34. A full page of Waterways News in Canal Boat & Inland Waterways for April was devoted to the history of our campaign leading up to "Lichfield aqueduct gets go-ahead at last ", illustrated by the artist's impression and by large cheque donations. Waterways World for April used the aerial photo to illustrate a Towpath Telegraph article on "Aqueduct order placed ", whilst Canal & Riverboat pictured the presentation of two cheques for £1,000 to the Appeal from Allen Matthews and Tim Coghlan at the OwnerShips Show at Braunston Marina. A donation from the Staffordshire County Council's Local Member Initiative Scheme of £2,500 for the Appeal, secured for us by Cllr Erica Bayliss, was reported in the Lichfield Mercury under "Groups to benefit from county's cash ", and a donation of £2,000 from Dudley Canal Trust prompted "Funds go on canal crossing " in the Express & Star.

On other matters, the Trust's new Environmental Team gained publicity with an "Appeal for saplings to spruce up canal banks " in The Post, and "Canal group looks to environment " in The Mercury. One of many talks on the Trust given by Bob Williams and others, this one to Burntwood WI, was reported at length in "Putting our canal back on course " in The Mercury. Other local publicity included an entry in the Lichfield District Tourist Guide and an article in the Darwin Walk Trust Newsletter.

The freezing weather inhibited bricklaying and concreting in January, but since then the early spring has enabled good progress at Lock 26 on building the bywash walls and a start on the towpath side bottom quadrant wall.

Alan Roberts with help from the team, building the towpath side bottom quadrant wall (Photos by Phil Sharpe)

Laying the copings on the bywash walls is a lengthy job and will use all the remaining copings in reasonable condition recovered two years ago from the demolished Hawkins Basin aqueduct at Walkmill Lane (see CBW28).

Other work has included preparation for repointing in the chamber, as usual much brick cleaning, and some scrub bashing at Fosseway Lane.

Several working parties have helped clear the brash from the latest phase of the Hatherton Canal Hedgerow Project, although this has not been quite as big a task as last year. Bonfires are popular in the winter and after a well attended burn-up in February, working between Saredon Mill and Cross Bridge, our March work party enjoyed an "away day" on the waterfront at Brownhills. The Trust had arranged for a JCB and driver, kindly loaned by Chasetown Civil Engineering, to level the ground and grub up the scrub bushes on the triangle of land between the interchange basin and Silver Street (see article in CBW33) on the Saturday. Then, on the Sunday, our regulars plus some new faces and local helpers, collected and burnt the branches and loaded the bulky root balls into a skip provided free by BW.

"Awayday" on Brownhills Waterfront (Photos by Phil Sharpe)

This was our contribution to preparing for a Brownhills Waterfront Event to be held on Sunday 29th June which will help publicise the Trust and the advantages of our restoration projects to the Brownhills area.