The 18th AGM held on Friday, 25th April 2008 at Whittington Village Hall was attended by nearly 50 members and supporters who heard heart-warming reports of achievements made during 2007. Chairman Brian Kingshott stressed how much the efforts of Directors and volunteers had contributed in the year, but sounded a note of caution in that more and younger people were needed to take part in moving the Trust forward into the future. Success brings added burdens which must be spread across a wider operating base. Presentation of the annual accounts audited by Dains - supplemented by those for the Retail Trading Company examined by West - confirmed draft figures published in the last issue of “Cut Both Ways”, certified as upholding the Trust’s accounting records and financial statements. Directors retiring by rotation were duly re-elected as also were Dains as main auditors.

Following the formal business, Cllr Terry Thomas, Sheriff of Lichfield announced that the Trust will receive a donation of around £1,000 from among the charities he has chosen to support during his present year in office. Also, a cheque for £1,000 was presented by Tim Burgin on behalf of the Inland Waterways Association, Lichfield Branch, from their successful fund-raising activities last year to go towards the cost of a Feasibility Study needed for the Lichfield Canal. The Chairman expressed particular thanks for these generous donations which greatly assist the Trust in its work. The meeting ended with an encouraging talk by Ivor Caplan on the rewards being reaped by the Droitwich Canal Trust after some 35 years of determined efforts in moving soon towards completing the restoration of the two historic canals in the Droitwich area.

At 09.30 on Tuesday 11th December, Trust Patron Michael Fabricant opened a Parliamentary debate on the future funding of canals in the UK and the activities of the Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust. The debate was answered by Jonathan Shaw MP, the Waterways Minister at the Department of the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs. Many other MPs participated. The full transcript of the Canals Debate is available here.

In response to this debate, the folowing letter was published in the "Birmingham Post" on 13 Dec 2007.

Dear Editor,

Michael Fabricant deserves thanks and recognition for speaking up in the debate on Staffordshire's canals, and in particular for the restoration of the Lichfield and Hatherton canals ("Post", 12 December). He is a years-long supporter of the project that would transform Walsall and Brownhills from canal backwaters to focal points on the national waterway network, and re-link the Lichfield and Cannock areas with Birmingham's canal network.

For too long, the Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust (LCHRT) has pushed the project forward with little or no support from the local authorities which stand to reap the sizeable economic and regeneration benefits of these restorations.

The Trust's most notable achievement was to persuade MEL, the hard-nosed builders of the M6 Toll, to allow for canal crossings at Churchbridge (a navigable culvert) and North of Brownhills (an aqueduct), which were fully charitably funded by the Trust.

This was a truly defining moment, for, without these canal crossings, the restoration project would have died there and then.

And that is exactly what would have happened, had it been left to Walsall and their neighbour local authorities in Staffordshire. So a huge debt of gratitude is owed to the volunteers of the LCHRT.

I happen to think that the time has now come where the Trust should no longer have to soldier on alone. If the representatives of the communities in the areas of the West Midlands and Staffordshire that stand to benefit most are truly serious about these restorations, a partnership should now be established involving the Trust, the British Waterways Board, Walsall Council, Staffordshire County Council, Cannock Chase, Lichfield and South Staffordshire District Councils, and the Inland Waterways Association.

Only by working together will we have the strength to win and assemble the funding necessary to bring this laudable stategic project to a successful conclusion.

Richard Worrall, Walsall.

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