I somewhat immodestly assume that these words are the first ones which most members will read when opening this magazine. In that sense, it is important that these comments set the tone for what is to follow; up-beat and optimistic without raising false expectations. A fellow director recently referred me to the observa-tions of a fellow chairman of another major restoration scheme which certainly embodies all those important elements. Admittedly, the closer a project is to achieving its objectives the easier it is to be cheerful but, as I look to writing my report for the Annual General Meeting, so I can see many reasons for us to be hopeful.

It is the time of year when I have cause to reflect on just how much our volunteers do and how much of their own time they burn up in the service of the Trust. One project which continues to consume so much of our time is the planned re-construction of Cappers Bridge. This has been a very long saga which has run for at least two years and which was proposed long before that. The funding has been a complicated spin-off from the aqueduct construction and the ERDF funding which came on line at about the same time. Our Finance Director, Bob Williams, has spent countless hours on the financial miasma of this funding package and he is still hard at work dealing with the constantly shifting sands of ERDF finances. Meanwhile, Mike Smith who handles all our land deals, has been assembling the land portfolio. This may seem a straightforward task but I have reason to know it has been far from that. As I write we are still toiling to transfer the last 64sq m of land from British Waterways to the County Council. Until all these details have been properly resolved we cannot be sure that the contractors can start work on time. We remain confident that all will be well. Without the dedication of our directors, supported by our members, we would achieve nothing.

With these thoughts in mind I must pay tribute to two of our strongest supporters who are standing down from the Board. Mike Brown has been Marketing Director for several years, strongly supported by May. He has carried our message tirelessly to shows and boat gatherings up and down Middle England, working amazingly long hours and travelling vast distances. We are delighted that although he is standing aside from office he will continue to work for us both in marketing and on our work sites. David Moore has stepped forward to take the Chair of the Marketing Group bringing us his considerable experience in such work. Assisted by Mavis, we are fortunate to have such a strong succession.

Chris Pattison has been our Board Minutes Secretary for the last couple of years, taking enormous care in this very important role. The work of the Board can be very complex and we are very dependent on our secretaries. Again, we are delighted that Chris will continue to work as part of the team and thank him for all he has done. Sue Williams has stepped bravely into the breach, combining the taking of minutes with her other tasks as Company Secretary and Web-Mistress. Anyone who visits Norfolk House will know just how much the Trust depends on the work of what I always call the “Williams Media Centre”.

Continuing the theme of optimism there are several projects in our pipeline which should give us cause to rejoice. The on-going work at Tamworth Road is a very visible sign of what can be achieved through practical restoration work. Phil Sharpe is co-ordinating our work there and I would recommend all our members to visit, especially at weekends, to see what is going on. Through the “Dig Deep” scheme we now have a programme of visits from restoration groups, as many of you will have seen on the ITV programme “Water World”. The opening up of Mrs Attwood’s garden now gives us a continuous length of track from the tail of Lock 24 through Locks 25 and 26 down to the A38. Anyone else who wishes to join in the work will be more than welcome and new helpers come forward all the time. We are very grateful to friendly landowners who allow us to work on or near their properties.

Meanwhile, we are hopeful that the suite of reports being prepared by Ove Arup, funded by our ERDF grant, will be completed in the near future. These will give us vital support as we plan the restoration of the Hatherton canal and look for funding for the work. The task to complete the studies has been very complex and demanding and we are grateful to Phil Sharpe and Bob Williams who have taken the lead on this.

As I look beyond the AGM and contemplate what might be our programme for the year ahead and the years beyond that I return to the certainty that we must draw in a broad spectrum of support. We have a membership which now exceeds 1500 (welcome to our 1500th member who joined at the NEC in February) but we need to look further. We need the active support of the thousands of boaters and waterways supporters who live in the Midlands or keep their boats here. It is the wider community which stands to benefit from the work and ideals of the L&H. The re-opening of our canals will unlock the vast leisure, commercial and environmental values of our canals and all those sadly underused miles of the northern BCN and its connecting waterways. We need to build a strong waterways partnership as the foundation of a much bigger group of local authorities, British Waterways and commercial interests which alone can take us to a successful outcome.

Finally, as we almost certainly head into a General Election, let us ask our potential MPs what they intend to do to help us. Some already do but let us have more!

Brian Kingshott

CAPPERS BRIDGE The first physical signs of progress with replacing the canal bridge on Cappers Lane appeared at Easter with green netting being placed over the hedges to discourage birds from nesting there and holding up the work. In fact, the observant may have seen wooden pegs in the fields from last year marking the new boundaries where the road corridor has to be widened to accommodate the raised embankments. The land transfers and access agreements have been complicated and protracted, but the bridge construction has now gone out to tender and by the time this appears in print the contract should be let with a start date before the end of May. We hope that travellers between Whittington and Lichfield will not be too inconvenienced by the necessary road closure over the summer and will appreciate it bringing forward the time when local residents can enjoy the benefits of a fully restored canal.

LICHFIELD LOCAL DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK
The second, and public, consultation stage on the Lichfield Local Development Framework took place in March and, despite not being formally consulted this time, the Trust made further representations. We welcomed the proposed Safeguarded Route for the canal but our concerns centred on its absence from the more detailed plans of the proposed Lichfield Southern Bypass Extension and of the Housing Strategy Site south of Wordsworth Close. We again stressed the importance of a comprehensive Master Plan for the area to ensure compatibility between the canal and road alignments and the housing area and re-iterated our opposition to the housing unless and until this is done. We were also disappointed with the lack of commitment to obtaining developer contributions towards the canal reconstruction and with the spurious arguments advanced about legal challenges.

The next stage of the LDF will be a draft submission version in the autumn, along with further consultation, and we hope that by then it will better address our concerns and requirements.

LEISURE OPPORTUNITIES REPORT
The snappily titled “Leisure Opportunities at Grove Colliery, Norton Canes and Chasewater Reservoir Master Plan and Development Strategy” was launched at a meeting of the sponsoring local authorities and other partners in March, and Bob Williams enlivened proceedings with a presentation on our restoration projects. We have been involved with the study since it began and the final report by DTZ Pieda Consulting includes the Hatherton Canal and the Lichfield Canal restorations plus a possible local canals exhibition/heritage centre as the main elements of one of 9 recommended priority projects to be delivered over a 13 year timescale and with a £36 million price tag, two thirds of which relates to the canals! This is a tremendous opportunity to take forward our work on a wider scale in a long term partnership and we hope it will be effective in accessing the major funding needed for its realisation.

SEVERN TRENT WATER
One of the major issues to be tackled in restoring the canal through Lichfield is the removal of the land drain which was installed when the canal was filled in about 40 years ago. Replacing the drain with the open watercourse of the canal seems to be generally acceptable in principle to Severn Trent Water, and it will give us a water supply for this section, but there are several practical problems to be overcome. Severn Trent have very helpfully produced at no cost to us a Hydraulic Assessment which includes detailed maps, long sections, levels and capacities of the main drain and some information on its tributaries. This reveals just how extensive the system now is, not just draining the canal bed but effectively being the main surface water drainage for the whole southern edge of Lichfield, from Chesterfield Road to the A38 and from Cricket Lane up to the top of Borrowcop Hill. Moreover, much of the main drain was dug down below the canal bed and, as we have found, cuts through the top sills of the locks and some of their inverts. Whilst this increases our channel and lock reconstruction tasks, it is the levels of the side drains that pose the greatest problems, with some of these entering the canal line below water level or even below bed level. More information on the side drain levels will be needed before we can fully assess how best to overcome this and to what extent alternative drainage routes will need to be provided, but at least we now know the extent of the problem and can begin to calculate what capacity we will need to cater for in rebuilding the by-washes to allow for passing the maximum flood flows.

DONATIONS
The list of donations this quarter includes notable gifts from our Vice-President David Suchet and from the “Great Internet Gathering” towards our Land Fund, from the “Shakespeare in the Park” organisation towards improved access, and a grant from Lichfield City Council towards our restoration work at Tamworth Road. These and the many others received are much appreciated.

Phil Sharpe

As the AGM approaches, I feel it is time to stand aside for someone else with a fresh view of things, to takeover as Marketing Chairman. Recent Past Events include the Owner Ships Show at Braunston which was well attended with Bob and Sue Williams representing the Trust, along with David Moore who is to take over as our new Marketing Chairman. Paul and Merleen Watson also made a special journey on both days to help on the Stand.

Our Pigeon Racing Social Evening, organised by Trish Humphries was a great success. It was something different in the way of entertainment and a lot of fun. A special thank you to Barbara Croxall and her team at St. John’s Church, Heath Hayes for organising the racing and the betting. Pat Barton ably assisted by Trish Humphries produced a very tasty supper, Bob and Sue Williams did a marvellous job with the Bar and the evening went very well.

Mike Brown (left), Pigeon Race winner Paul Clayton (centre) and Dave Moore (right)

The number of visitors to this year’s show was officially confirmed by the organisers as 132,480. This was 2,500 down on last year and less than the attendance for 2003. The lower figure was put down to the warnings of dire weather, which never materialised, but which kept the midweek attendances down.

Nevertheless the L&H team put in a good showing with total income to the Trust of nearly £1600, which was about the same as last year. In addition we recruited some 31 new members, including our 1500th member, Mr Edward Blacksmith, who will receive Life Membership of the Trust. Mr Blacksmith was accompanied by his hearing dog who will be enrolled in our pets club. We also enrolled two further pets. A rabbit, who we hope will now persuade his owners to join, and Scamp the Jack Russell owned by former IWA Chairman, Audrey Smith.

The emphasis this year was on charting steady progress rather than dramatic strides. However, we were able to report on the imminent start of work at Cappers Lane Bridge as well as some recent acquisitions of land.

This was my first outing as the stand manager and I must thank all the team for their hard work, particularly those who were on duty mid week when the worse of the weather was forecast. We did extremely well with the sale of Grand Draw tickets, several days seeing us top the £100 mark, although other sales were slow.

A good variety of media coverage was again achieved between January and March 2005.

The local press publicised our visiting work party weekends with “Help from across the country for canal restoration project” in the Lichfield Mercury in February, with a picture of the scrub bashing at Fosseway Lane site by WRG Northwest the previous month. This prompted a follow-up letter from our director Mike Smith inviting more support for the ‘back room’ team as well as the ‘hands on’ brigade. Also in February, the Express & Star gave almost instant coverage of the KESCRG weekend with a picture of Joanne Smith fronting the fencing team at Fosseway Lane under the headings “Workers a cut above the rest – Canal group’s long trek to help restore city site”. In March the Express & Star reported on the Leisure Opportunities Report including the canals’ restoration in “Canal plan supported”, and one of Bob Williams’ many talks was mentioned by The Post under “Canal restoration information”. Also in March a meeting about the Village Green application for the Shortbutts Lane area, as reported in The Mercury, heard from one resident unhappy that the plans might prevent the restoration of the Lichfield Canal.

Throughout February and March the Trust’s ‘Pigeon Racing’ event captured press attention and must be the most publicised Trust event ever ! I spotted 2 separate articles in the Cannock & Lichfield Chronicle, 3 in the Express & Star, 3 in the Rugeley & Cannock Mercury, and 1 in The Post. The headline writers certainly earned their corn (!) with the best (or most excruciating) ones being “Racing event will be a feather in their cap”, “Get in a flap for canal funds” and, inevitably, “Race night coo for Canals Trust”. See News 2005 for more

In the waterways press the “Huddlesford Gathering” was covered by Canal & Riverboat for January, and “Restoration round-up” in Canal Boat & Inland Waterways for February pictured work underway on repairs to the tail of Lock 24. In the Waterways World March and April editions, “The way we were” reminded readers that 10 years ago we began the first physical restoration of the Lichfield Canal and completed our final submissions to the Birmingham Northern Relief Road public Inquiry. The April edition also had an article on pontoon conversions with a picture of a boat called the ‘White Swan’, reputedly built at Muckley Corner and “probably the last boat to use the top eight locks of the Ogley flight”. The WRG magazine Navvies for Feb-March included a 3 page Dig Report on “Christmas at Lichfield with London WRG and KESCRG” with photos of wall pointing, scrub burning, and strange goings-on at their Xmas party including fancy dress and cutting people in half !

We had further television coverage this quarter, in ITV’s 6th series of “Waterworld”, although broadcast only in the Midlands. The 9th episode on 3rd March included a brief review of our restoration project, pictures of the aqueduct installation, and good coverage of a variety of jobs underway on the Canal Camp at Tamworth Road last August plus interviews with several of the volunteers and our director Bob Williams.

Returning to local publications, “The Guide 2005”, the annual Lichfield District tourist guide includes several pictures of the ‘Lichfield & Hatherton Canal’ (woops !), actually taken at the Huddlesford Gathering, plus our information box entry on the Lichfield Canal, complete with aqueduct photo, and a dotted line for the Lichfield Canal (under restoration) on the main map. Copies are free from Lichfield District Council or the Lichfield District Tourism Association.