When asked what was the main determining factor in running government Harold Macmillan famously declared “Events, dear boy, events”. A lengthy period in school management and almost two decades in the Lichfield and Hatherton have underlined the wisdom of this comment. We can plan the work for years or months or days ahead but what determines the agenda is what is in the post or the e-mail inbox. All too often “events” turn out to be seriously distracting or even threatening. Sometimes, “events” can be positive or benign. I will start with one of the benign variety. I commented in the last Cut Both Ways that a request for information about our aqueduct resulted in an explanation appearing in The Guardian. I was pleased to see national publicity when we least expected it. I was even more surprised when we received a donation of £500 from the trustees of a charitable trust who had read the article, done some research and then decided that we are a worthy cause.

Elsewhere, “events” have caused us considerable work but some progress has been made, as you will read in detail elsewhere in the magazine. The planned construction of the Lichfield Southern Bypass has been a major issue for some years and came to a head during the autumn. As I promised last time, we mounted a powerful campaign to draw attention to the threat which the current proposals for the new road posed to the only viable route which the Lichfield Canal can take around the city. As I write, detailed discussions continue but I must pay tribute to all those who rallied to our cause. Expressions of support came from far and wide but we are especially grateful to IWA, British Waterways and Michael Fabricant MP. We have met Jim Knight, Waterways Minister, received legal advice by courtesy of British Waterways and are maintaining contact with everyone concerned.

Elsewhere, there is much positive news to report and this is especially important at present. I must stress that the restoration of the Lichfield Canal will be achieved. There will always be challenges to overcome but overcome they will be. The rebuilding of Cappers Bridge is going well and is on schedule. Completion is due in March after which we intend to hold a celebration on the weekend of the Annual General Meeting. Details will be finalised soon and we will seek to gain the maximum publicity from this achievement. It is typical of the challenges which we often face that the discussions and negotiations ahead of construction took years while the building work has taken months. We are grateful to local residents and the people of Whittington for their patience while the road is closed.

There has been intense activity to try to resolve the problems posed by the current plans for the building of the new road along the southern edge of Lichfield. It has always been vital for the Trust to be able to use the footprint of the road as a route for the diverted section of the Lichfield Canal. The planning consent given by Lichfield District Council placed the scheme in severe jeopardy and the Trust has made strenuous efforts to have this revised. We made approaches politically at national and local levels and enlisted the support of IWA, The Waterways Trust and British Waterways among others.

BW, through the good offices of Tony Harvey at Fazeley, obtained guidance from B.V. Grimley, based in Birmingham, who specialise in planning law. Their advice was that any challenge to the planning consent would be expensive and unlikely to succeed. At this point BW undertook to open discussions with Staffordshire County Council at the highest level to see if practical solutions could be found to routing the canal along the track of the new road. It was agreed that BW and SCC would work together to achieve this.

Autumn Fair 21st October A new venture for the Marketing team which came about when booking the Guild Hall for the IWA AGM. Margaret Beardsmore was told that there was a cancellation on a Friday in November and were we interested? We needed only 12 stallholders to fill the room and thanks to the efforts of Margaret and Sue Williams we managed it comfortably. In addition the Trust provided refreshments and sold second-hand books and Trust merchandise. We had a good and varied collection of traders - jewellery, jams & marmalade, wood turning, paintings, pottery, handmade Christmas cards and fancy goods, family history, and boat handling tuition. A bonus was the wedding party upstairs, when they realised that we were selling teas and coffees we got an unexpected boost in trade! The result was a contribution of nearly £350 to the Trust’s funds.

Black Country Evening 12th November
This proved to be a sell-out; in fact we were turning away requests for tickets right up to the last minute. Those that were lucky enough to get tickets were well entertained in their own Black Country way by David Bartley and his mate Alfie. In between the music was provided by the Onion Bargees. Add to this faggots and peas expertly prepared by Pat Barton and Terry Robertson, and a most enjoyable evening ensued. The event boosted the Trusts funds by over £1000. So well done and thanks to everyone who helped to make the evening such a success, especially the aforementioned Pat & Terry, Trish Humphries and Mike Brown, and the Williams family for running the bar. Thanks also to all those who helped with setting up and clearing, before and after the entertainment.

A busy autumn fair in Lichfield Guild Hall		Black Country Evening audience
Photos by Sue Williams

SMART Van 8th October
The only other outing for the Marketing team in this period was with the SMART Van in the car park of the Co-op at Boley Park. Unfortunately the weather decided take a hand and we packed up mid afternoon, when it was apparent that any visitors to the store were going to take the quickest and driest route between car and store entrance and not divert past us. Nevertheless the morning session was useful; several shoppers stopped to ask what progress we were making and when did we expect to finish! And a number purchased draw tickets. Although curtailed by the weather it was a useful experiment and proved the usefulness of the SMART Van. We have plans to repeat this in other locations along the canal route.

A new member of the Marketing team is George Simonczyk and his enquiries have led to the Trust having displays in the Cannock and Heath Hayes libraries. This is an incentive we wish to follow up in other local libraries in order to make the maximum use of the display boards. George’s local knowledge of the Cannock area has proved useful in many other ways as well.

Other activities
Trish Humphries has been working to persuade various publicans to place L&H collection boxes on their bars. The results have been mixed but one has produced a return beyond our expectations. The Round House at Gailey has yielded a magnificent £180 in just half a year. The Boat at Penkridge produced a further £24. Do you think your ‘local’ might be persuaded to have a collection box; if so please contact David Moore on 01543 432718.