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Lichfield Branch
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• A View From The Helm Page 3
• Forthcoming Events Page 5
Walks, Meetings and Events until January 2026
• Recent Activities Page 6 Walks and Meetings
• Event Posters Page 9/10/11
• Some Recent Events Page 12
• Grounding Advice from RCR Page 13
• Unsafe Boats on the Waterways Page 15
• Planning Matters Page 18
• Editorial Notice Page 21
• Committee List Page 22
Front page photo—A busy scene at the Braunston Historic Boat Rally
The IWA may not agree with opinions expressed in this magazine but encourages publication as a matter of interest. Nothing printed may be construed as policy, or as an official pronouncement, unless specifically identified as such.
The Inland Waterways Association is a non-profit distributing company limited by guarantee. Registered in England no. 612245. Registered as a charity no. 212342
Registered Office: Unit 16B, Chiltern Court, Asheridge Road, Chesham HP5 2PX Tel: 01494 783453 Web: www.waterways.org.uk
Lichfield Branch
A VIEW FROM THE HELM
As I begin my tenure as Lichfield Branch Chairman, our waterways both locally and nationally are facing ever increasing challenges. This year’s exceptionally dry weather has simply added to the problems which have been developing over the years due to an ongoing lack of adequate maintenance measures.
Thankfully our area has faired a little better than many, but it hasn’t been without its problems, with some restrictions and closures in various locations around here too. I occasionally do lock keeper volunteering at Fradley and there have been times when we’ve had to manage the water very carefully in order to ensure the lock pounds have enough depth for boats to pass through, but that of course is a minor issue compared to many other lock flights.
Periods of drought are nothing new of course, but they are definitely occurring more often nowadays. In fact my very first narrowboating experience was back during the infamous drought year of 1976 when some mates and I hired a boat for a week, but more about that another time.
On a more positive note, I know many of our members aren’t necessarily boaters so are less directly affected by the water shortages, but they enjoy regularly visiting our canals and rivers, and appreciate the work that the IWA does to help to ensure that they remain pleasant places to go to.
Whether it be to visit a canalside pub or café, walking the towpaths, exploring any adjacent attractions, or just to escape from the hustle bustle of everyday life, we are so lucky to be blessed with such lovely and diverse waterways in our area. On that subject I urge members to try out one of our regular canal themed walks. Led by our member Clive Walker, they are usually about 4 miles long, generally on fairly flat terrain, at a relaxed pace, and always end at a pub. They are very informal and are a great opportunity to meet like minded people. Clive’s next walk is on 4th September and is unusually slightly outside our area. It will start and end at Gnosall on the Shropshire Union Canal (see our events calendar for more details). Non members are always welcome too.
Our next event is our annual ‘Lock Wind’ at Barton Lock on the Trent & Mersey Canal at Barton-under-Needwood, whereby we spend the day assisting boaters through the lock, sell home made cakes to raise funds, and aim to spread awareness of who we are and what we are about. Why not pop by and come and have a chat with us?
We have some interesting talks lined up for our monthly social evenings. In September we have the esteemed traveller Phil Clayton, talking about his exploits on the Eastern side of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal and then up the River Ouse to York and beyond.
On occasions when boating I’ve become entrenched in thick weed so I’m particularly
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interested in our October speaker, CRT’s Charles Hughes’ talking about how they tackle invasive plants across our waterways, and particularly their experiment using weevils to tackle some species of weed. Then in November we have CRT’s Peter Simpson talking about our tunnels, with some interesting facts and anecdotes as well as how CRT monitor and maintain their tunnels.
In October we will begin our 8th consecutive winter offside vegetation cutting, this time on the Coventry Canal between Atherstone and Huddlesford. As always we are on the look out for more volunteers, and I’m disappointed that we rarely get much response to my appeals. Perhaps people are put off when they see the photos of us all kitted out in high viz jackets and helmets, brandishing scary looking tools of mass destruction? Or maybe the work we do looks too physically demanding? Perhaps it’s a reluctance to commit to anything so regular?
Frankly this is not the case. Our volunteers do as much or as little as they feel comfortable with both in terms of physical tasking, and how often they attend the work parties. As I’ve mentioned before there are lots of very important things to do which don’t require any formal training or brandishing the pole chainsaws and using the wood chipper.
Why not come and see for yourself, as I’d love some of you to pop along and observe us in action? Or send me an email and I’d be very happy to have an informal chat to tell you more about what we do and what is involved.
Finally, I appreciate it is a long way off (or is it!), but I should mention our annual preChristmas meal on Sunday December 14th. Held at Darnford Moors Golf Club, it’s always a popular and enjoyable event, and we’d love to see you there. Pre booking is a must, so please contact Sue Gurney well in advance of the day, ideally by early November.
Neil Barnett Chairman, IWA Lichfield Branch
18th July 2025
Busy day at Lockwind 2024
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Forthcoming Events
All our Social Meetings will be held at Darwin Hall, off Heathcot Place, Lichfield WS13 6RQ at 7:15pm for a 7:30pm start.
Sunday 3rd August 2025
—Lockwind
The Branch will be holding a Lockwind at Barton Turn Lock to raise awareness of IWA and funds for the Branch. If you can bake some cakes it would be great. Contact Helen Whitehouse on 01543 491161
Saturday/Sunday 16th/17th
August—Brownhills Canal Festival
Organised by the Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust the Brownhills Canal Festival is held on the Wyrley and Essington Canal at Silver Street. The festival has floating traders, historic narrowboats, land traders and lots more. Location: Silver Street, Brownhills, WS8 6DZ . See poster on page 10.
Saturday/Sunday/Monday 23rd/24th/25th August 2025—Campaign Rally at Lymm
The Inland Waterways Association is holding a campaign rally at Agden Bridge, Agden, Lymm, Warrington, Cheshire, WA13 9JT near to the site of the disastrous breach on the Bridgewater Canal at Dunham Massey at the beginning of the year. This will be held over the bank holiday weekend, 23rd to 25th August 2025. The purpose of the rally is to ensure that the breach is repaired as soon as possible. The owners of the canal, Peel Holdings, will hopefully be at the event and will hopefully be able to answer many questions as to when and how the breach will be repaired. See poster on page 9.
Thursday 4th September 2025—Guided Walk
“Gnosall and the Shropshire Union Canal”
This is an easy 4-mile circular walk with no stiles, on footpaths, across fields, on country roads and along the towpath.
We first follow the Way for the Millenium, a disused railway track connecting the towns of Shrewsbury and Stafford, before traversing a farm growing strawberries in polytunnels. From there we carry on towards the hamlet of Upper Cowley where we join the Shroppie at bridge 32.
After passing through the short Cowley tunnel, we leave the canal by bridge 34 and walk back through the village to our starting point.
Meet at 10:45 for 11:00 start on Thursday 4th September 2025 at The Acorn (formerly The Royal Oak), Newport Road, Gnosall Heath, Staffordshire ST20 0BL
Contact Clive Walker at clive.walker@waterways.org.uk
Saturday 6th September 2025—Open Day at Stafford Boat Club
Stafford Riverway Link (SRL) will be there raising fund for their restoration.
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See poster on page 11.
Friday 19th September 2025—Social Meeting
The ever entertaining Phil Clayton returns to give as a talk on “A Northerner on Northern Waters—Part 2: East of Edenfield”.
Saturday/Sunday 20th/21st September 2025—Huddlesford Canal Festival
Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust will be holding their bi-annual festival at Huddlesford. This event is held to raise funds for the restoration efforts and is always a good day out with plenty to see and do. See poster on page 10.
Friday October 17th 2025—Social Meeting
Charles Hughes of Canal & River Trust on “Tackling the increasing threat of invasive plants across our waterways”
Thursday 6th November 2025—Guided Walk
Starting from Stoke Golding and the Ashby Canal Details TBA.
Friday November 21st 2025—Social Meeting
Peter Simpson, CRT Principal Engineer for Tunnels & Culverts on “Going Underground”
Sunday 14th December—Branch Christmas
Lunch
SAVE THE DATE
Following the success of previous years we will be back at Darnford Moors Golf Club again. Menu details will follow as soon as we know.
Thursday 1st January 2026—New Year’s Day
Guided Walk
Starting from Atherstone Details TBA
Recent Activities
Thursday 8th May 2025—Guided Walk
Armitage and the Trent & Mersey Canal
We started from The Plum Pudding, originally the Old Plum Pudding pub, it has been around for many years, became an Italian restaurant around 2008 but has now reverted to a pub and serves up traditional pub food and real ales. It was good to see some new faces among the twelve walkers who assembled in the car park. The weather was promising as we headed past well-tended allotments and St.
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John The Baptist Church before reaching the T&M by the high bridge 60.
We soon passed the imposing Ideal Standard factory, better known as Armitage Shanks. The company has been based in Armitage for over two centuries, and its sanitary ware is now sold largely overseas. We left the canal by The Crown Inn at bridge 58 and followed the pavement to the historic High Bridge over the river Trent. This bridge has a single cast-iron arch cast built by the Coalbrookdale Company in Shropshire. It was completed in 1830. It is now accessible only to walkers and cyclists, after it suffered from subsidence and a replacement road bridge was built alongside in the 1980s. A green plaque in the middle of the bridge commemorates Joseph Potter as the surveyor of the bridge and also mentions Sir Oswald Mosely’s name as Chairman of the County of Stafford. Strangely, if you carry out a Google search on this bridge, there is no mention of the latter.
After posing for a group photo we crossed the road and entered the parish of the splendidly named Mavesyn Ridware. There are several Ridware village nearby, and this name means “ford dwellers”. The Mavesyn part is a corruption of the French family name Malvoisin, who acquired land here following the Norman Conquest. If my understanding of French is correct, the name Malvoisin translates literally as ‘bad or dangerous neighbour’, so one wonders what might have gone on in this hamlet following their arrival.
Mavesyn Ridware contains no less than 24 grade-listed buildings. Because it is off the beaten track it appears largely intact and is a pleasant place to visit. Our route followed a circuitous path around the village and over several stiles.
Eventually we crossed the Trent again on another ornate footbridge built in 1866 at the same time as the railway, which we passed under immediately afterwards. We then retraced our steps back along the canal to the Plum Pudding, where we enjoyed refreshment.
Clive Walker
Wednesday 11th June 2025—Guided Walk
“Swarkestone and the Trent & Mersey Canal / Derby Canal”
The summer walk took place this year at Swarkestone on the outskirts of Derby. It
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included visits to both an active canal – the T&M – and a disused canal – the Derby canal.
After leaving the car park of The Crewe & Harpur Inn (named after the owner of nearby Calke Abbey) we soon passed not one but two historic monuments in Lowes Lane. On our left was a Grade II listed farmhouse, originally built as stables by Sir Harry Harpur in 1777, and on our right was an intact Bronze Age barrow. Remarkably this mound had survived not only the building of the canal, but also a high-pressure gas pipeline and the modernization of the A50 dual carriageway. There were originally four burial mounds on the site, the remaining three having been ploughed out. An assortment of flints, scrapers and blades have been excavated, and these are now housed in Derby Museum.
We crossed the busy A50 on an extensive flyover – the only climb of the day – and walked towards the outskirts of Derby. Above us skylarks sang, whilst to our left came the sound of rifles from a shooting range, and ahead of us, in the distance, we could see some mysterious dome-like structures. This is where Rolls Royce is building mini nuclear reactors.
We crossed a very new access road to the site (not marked on my OS map) and entered Sinfin Moor. At a slight rise in the ground (presumably a buried lock) we turned right to follow the disused Derby Canal. The line of the canal is well preserved from its junction with the T&M all the way to the Pride Park football stadium, and the tarmacked towpath has become a popular walking and cycle route into the city. The dry bed of the canal was clearly visible on our right. Numerous noticeboards erected by the Derby & Sandiacre Canal Trust explain their ambitious plans. Eventually we came to the junction where there is a local boat club. Pearson’s guide shows a branch leading down through Swarkestone to the river Trent but there is no sign of this arm on the ground. We crossed the double lock and headed westwards past a splendid cast iron crane as far as bridge 16, where we left the canal, before returning to The Crewe & Harpur for refreshment.
Clive Walker
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Lichfield Branch at Crick Boat Show
Lichfield Branch was well represented at the 2025 Crick Boat Show. The team spent the weekend recruiting new members and selling canal related books, maps etc to everybody who passed by. The weather cooperated for most of the weekend until late Monday when we started to pack up. It wasn’t too bad and we all retired to the Wheatsheaf in Crick for a meal and drink!.
A surprise at the weekend was when IWA were awarded a trophy from the show organisers for the stand that had supported the show for the longest. IWA had been there every year since the show moved to Crick in 2000! It doesn’t show up very well in the picture but the trophy is right in the centre. From left to right we have Sue Gurney, Pete Gurney, Jonathan Mosse, Helen Whitehouse and John Fevyer.
Pete & Sue Gurney
Visit to Taylor’s Bell Foundry
After the fascinating talk given to us by Simon Adams of Taylor’s Bell Foundry at our April Social Meeting, Sue and I enrolled on one of their guided tours. We had a bit of trouble finding the place amongst the back streets of Loughborough but we got there in the end. We were first shown a video about the history of the foundry (not the same one we had at our meeting) and then given a tour of the factory by an incredibly knowledgeable volunteer. It was like walking into a time warp. The factory has been there since the middle of the 19c and doesn’t seem to have changed much since. The workforce is quite small but highly skilled and as well as casting new bells they also do a lot of refurbishment of older bells, some very old. The only hi-tech part of the factory is in the tuning department where they use electronic equipment to
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accurately tune a bell. Even so they still manually override the electronics sometimes to get a bell sounding just right. It was also pleasing to see that they have a couple of young apprentices as part of the team. They cast a small bell whilst we were there, pouring the hot metal into a mould buried in a sand pit.
There is also a small museum there with a chance to use a wooden hammer to hit some bells one of which had been welded and made a very un-musical thud when struck.
Altogether a brilliant day out, much recommended!
Braunston Historic Boat Rally
Pete & Sue Gurney
As always the Braunston Historic Boat Rally in June this year was an entertaining weekend. To stand on the bridge at the junction and watch the boats going round the “island” is a fun event on it’s own. Some are better than others, but the skill of the steerers taking a pair round the island is amazing to watch. We chatted with the Northampton Branch members who were manning the IWA stand, they seemed to be having a good day and so were the rest of the traders. The sandwiches from the “Gongoozlers Rest” café were amazing. A great day out!
Pete & Sue Gurney
Grounding advice from RCR
River Canal Rescue (RCR) is warning boaters about the risks of grounding after receiving 40+ calls in a six-week period, prompting a higher than usual number of callouts.
From 1 June to 11 July, rescue co-ordinators have been giving on the phone assistance to one/two people a day, and while many callers are then able to move their boats, around 40% require intervention from the Canal & River Trust (CRT) or support from a rescue team.
Low water levels, sand banks and underwater obstacles are causing problems in a number of areas including: the Hatton locks, Caldon Canal, Oxford Canal, Grand Union, Trent & Mersey and River Nene. By 10 July, the CRT had posted 15 alerts on
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its online stoppage map, detailing navigation and lock closures, restrictions and areas where water levels were at their lowest.
If a boat runs aground, RCR will liaise with the CRT, to check low water levels are causing the stoppage, and the CRT will endeavour to move the boat (if it can’t be moved by the caller). If the CRT is unavailable or other issues are identified, RCR will despatch a team. This type of event is usually covered by a fully comprehensive insurance policy.
Low water levels are also putting drive systems under pressure. Without the depth to ensure smooth travel through water, the load transfers to the drive system, resulting in gearboxes overheating, and a higher risk of hitting/catching something underwater, causing damage to drive plates and couplings.
RCR reports gearbox, coupling and drive plate issues have risen by 50% in some cases, when compared to the same period last year. From 1 June – 11 July, 11 gearboxes, 16 drive plates and 7 couplings were replaced; in 2024, it was 5 gearboxes, 11 drive plates and 6 couplings.
RCR managing director, Stephanie Horton, advises keep the revs down: “If you’re on a canal and you find the boat is not moving as fast as usual, and water levels look low, DON’T simply increase your speed, be patient and wait until the water levels increase or you can get though a lock to a better location. Speed on low water puts pressure on drive systems.”
Weed is another problem across the network, impacting propellers and blocking intakes of raw water-fed boats and outboards.
RCR grounding advice:
Put on a life jacket and put your boat in reverse to see if you can move away from the obstruction. If this doesn’t work, walk around the vessel testing the surrounding water depth with a boat pole. This will pinpoint where the water’s shallower and where the problem is. On rivers you can usually see itrocks or gravel for example - as the water’s clearer.
If the front of the boat’s grounded, move some of the ballast that may be holding it down. The water tank is always at the front of a narrowboat so turn on the taps to empty it and move heavy items such as gas bottles, the anchor and any chains to the rear – this will give the boat more buoyancy at the front and potentially lift it a vital few inches which may be all it needs to clear itself. Half a ton of water can create a six-inch difference. If it does clear, put the boat in reverse.
If the boat’s grounded on one side, it’s a similar scenario; move anything that’s weighing it down in this area to the opposite side. Do this in cautious stagesif you over-balance, the vessel will list and it could end up taking on water.
If there are people onboard, position yourself at the helm and ask the remainder to rock the boat gently; the momentum may move it. If the rear of the boat’s aground and the propeller’s lifted (which is a rare scenario), you’ll probably
need a tow.
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While it’s tempting to ask a passing boater for a tow, this should only be undertaken by an experienced boater. We’ve had cases where the person towing the vessel has got into trouble and we’ve ended up rescuing two boats. Also, if you’re on a hire boat, you’ll invalidate their insurance if they try to tow you, so it’s better not to put them in that position in the first place. If you are able to free your vessel, check it thoroughly at the first possible opportunity – particularly the hull – as this could have been damaged.
Stephanie concludes: “With more closures expected across the system, check your route before starting a journey, and go slow when water levels are low.”
Follow River Canal Rescue on Facebook or visit www.rivercanalrescue.co.uk
More unsafe boats on waterways says RCR
River Canal Rescue is concerned over the increasing number of unsafe boats cruising the waterways. The marine breakdown assistance company estimates around 16% of its 3,500 yearly call-outs are due to poor electrical/wiring installations and battery connections, safety lapses and carbon monoxide exposure; up from 12% 18 months ago.
Examples include live 240V cables hanging in the bilges, overloaded electrical connections, surplus battery wires and badly-fitting diesel lines.
Boat owners have a responsibility to obtain a valid Boat Safety Scheme certificate every four years, but RCR believes such a length of time between visits leaves any post -pass modifications unchecked until the next inspection. The BSS recognises this does happen, but says it is not responsible for enforcing navigation authorities’ safety standards between inspections.
RCR managing director, Stephanie Horton, opines: “With such a length of time between checks, anything can change. For example, we have a ludicrous situation where if a boat sinks and is refloated, its BSS still stands, despite the condition of the boat.”
Stephanie is also concerned at the number of failures, which potentially could have been picked up at inspection.
BSS general manager, Kevin Tyson, says: “We take the quality and integrity of our examinations extremely seriously. Our examiners are supported by a programme of routine training, they’re quality assurance assessed and we use data-led monitoring to detect any inconsistencies.
“Out of the 21-22,000 inspections BSS examiners undertake annually, the numbers of issues we find and the complaints we get about inconsistency are comparatively tiny. On the whole, they’re doing a good job finding over 34,700 non-compliant items each year. No system is immune to human error, so we actively investigate all reports of substandard examinations and provide additional training and support where needed.”
Stephanie continues: “We often find a legitimate certificate has recently been issued,
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there are no modifications, yet the boat is in a perilous state. Anecdotal feedback suggests in some cases, this may be due to ‘obtaining’ a pass without a visit.
“When we find boats in dangerous conditions, we advise customers to report back to the BSS, however many feel that doing so will cause them more issues or affect their boat’s certification.”
Kevin agrees: “We encourage boaters to report any concerns to the BSS so we can act promptly.”
“Owners are putting themselves, their boats and potentially others, in dangerous and on occasion, lifethreatening situations,” Stephanie concludes. “All boaters need to take responsibility for the condition of their vessels, and equally, the BSS, which we fully support, in our opinion needs to invest more in monitoring and checking the passes being given.”
The BSS states its examination observations relate solely to the condition of the boat at the time of inspection and maintaining that level of compliance is the owner's ongoing responsibility. The BSS reminds the vessel must be maintained in accordance with safety requirements and any other licensing, registration or mooring conditions of the relevant navigation or harbour authority.
Case studies
An engineer attended to replace some domestic wiring and found a 240V extension sat in the bilges, with 240V and 12V cables cable tied together, no isolation and no circuit board protection for some systems. There was also under-rated cabling and poor crimping. The vessel, which had recently passed a BSS, was deemed extremely unsafe and a full overhaul of electrical systems
advised.
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An engineer was called out for a starter motor issue, and found the owners had recently replaced their three domestic batteries with one large battery, leaving the wires from the two now missing batteries still in place, connected to the battery bank. Rather than removing them, two positive and two negative wires were hanging in to the bilge area, waiting to cause anything from a short-out, to electric shock, fire etc. Posing a threat, the engineer sorted out their wiring and returned a day later to fit a new starter motor.
A customer had fresh diesel lines fitted on the engine (not by RCR) and was concerned about a diesel smell and diesel in the bilge. The engineer found the diesel line union was incorrectly fitted and it was spraying diesel over the exhaust wrapping. Diesel ignites at 56 degrees so the owners were lucky this didn't cause a fire. The engineer refitted the union and advised not to run the engine until the exhaust wrapping was changed, because it was diesel-soaked. Customer replaced it the next day.
An engineer attended an all-steel narrowboat to work on an engine problem. Upon arrival the customer advised she and her partner had been suffering with very bad headaches and extreme tiredness. After entering the engine bay, the engineer found the whole area covered in thick black soot and the exhaust broken away from the housing. He was told it had been like that for a ‘good while’ and that while running their engine to charge the batteries for their electric, they were falling asleep. With the exhaust no longer connected, the engine was pumping carbon monoxide into the boat. There was no carbon monoxide alarm and in the engineer’s opinion, ‘they were very close to death’. The issue was sorted out the same day.
Planning Matters
This report summarises the more interesting of over 30 planning matters dealt with between mid-April and mid-July 2025.
The Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal near Gailey will be crossed by a new bridge within the West Midlands Interchange site and changes to the plans now show it as fully brick clad as we had requested. However we have objected to the use of
rusty coloured ‘weathering steel’ to fence off an offside shelf, and questioned details of the plans including a change to the canal water level by a significant 0.72m as it is not clear if CRT have agreed this.
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On the Trent & Mersey Canal at Taft Wharf Farm near Wolseley Bridge an application for a building near the canal has been refused. Although claimed to be for agricultural use, the surrounding area has been developed in recent years as a boatyard with moorings and boat building activities, despite having no change-of-use planning consent.
Near the Ash Tree Inn at Armitage, the application to change what were part of the Ash Tree Boat Club moorings into residential use has been refused, due to the unsafe access off the road shared with an adjacent unauthorised skip hire operation. The same applicant has now proposed building two houses adjacent to the moorings on the other side of the bypass bridge, but with one cutting into the road embankment and with a high brick wall on the canal boundary, to which we have objected.
By the Coventry Canal at Mancetter Marina we supported a new facilities building which has now been granted.
In Nuneaton we were concerned that a new cycle ramp up to Turnover Bridge by the developing Gypsy Lane housing site did not include a towpath access as previously planned, and the planning officer has asked that it be reinstated.
The Coventry Canal will also be affected by the proposed Grand Union Canal Transfer Project which will convey waste water from Minworth via a pipeline to Atherstone, then by canal to somewhere south of Milton Keynes. Following up on our earlier consultation response, I arranged an online meeting with CRT for a project update and to discuss the impacts on navigation and heritage of bank-raising proposals and possible new stop or ‘transfer’ locks. We have suggested deep dredging to limit the water level rises, particularly on the Coventry and north Oxford canals. The water inflow point at Atherstone is now to be away from the locks, but much more information is needed on the channel reconstruction works before we could endorse this as of overall benefit to canal users.
Taft Boat Yard from above (Google)
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On the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal at Bodymoor Heath Bridge, CRT’s application to insert tie rods to support a leaning wingwall was granted Listed Building Consent.
Near Curdworth Tunnel the canal could be dominated to the north by a huge new employment park. The very large warehouse units up to 25m height are too close to the canal for effective screening, and only limited tree planting is proposed. There would be canalside open space including a ‘community’ orchard, garden, and play area but it is not clear who would use these within an industrial estate. We have said that the closest development zones E1 & E2 should be excluded, or at least the units should be limited in size and height by Planning Condition. Strategic landscaping and set-backs are to be provided on the west, north and east boundaries but not the southern boundary to the canal, which is not acceptable. The site is in the West Midlands Green Belt, and it is not up to the applicant to reclassify it as ‘Grey Belt’. It is within 1km of the large Peddimore employment site now being developed and close to the established Hams Hall site, so there is no local need, and any regional need is already satisfied by the West Midlands Interchange site. Our objection concludes that the application is entirely contrary to the development plan and has no merit.
Affecting the Ashby Canal restoration route between Oakthorpe and Donisthorpe, a major new sewer pipeline for Severn Trent will cross the historic route near the Willesley end of the Donisthorpe loop. At an online meeting between the consultant planners and Ashby Canal Association and Ashby Canal Trust it was revealed that the pipeline depth at the canal crossing point has been reduced from earlier plans which may conflict with the optimum canal restoration level. Further information was promised but is yet to be received.
By the Cannock Extension Canal at the A5 end, the ‘Jubilee Field’ is in the Local Plan as ‘Safeguarded’ for future employment development by removal from the Green Belt. I attended an Examination session to present our case against this, and received assurances that the developers would regard the 17 residential boats there as ‘receptors’ in a noise assessment, and will fund a safe A5 pedestrian crossing as part of the redevelopment and expansion of the existing Watling Street Business Park.
Near the Anglesey Branch of the Wyrley & Essington Canal, the proposed housing on an unofficial allotments site within woodland has been refused due to being in the Green Belt, and not ‘Grey Belt’ as claimed.
On the Rushall Canal at Norman Road we objected to construction of a gym building in a rear garden with a blank back wall, and with one corner only a metre from the towpath hedge which would damage its roots, and the application was then withdrawn.
Phil Sharpe, Planning Officer & HS2 Lead
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Editorial Notice
Lichfield Lines is the newsletter of IWA Lichfield Branch, it is produced 4 times a year to keep members informed about our forthcoming public meetings, walks, work parties and other activities, to provide reports on recent meetings and events, and to include articles of general interest to our members.
The editor, Peter Gurney, welcomes articles, letters or photographs of waterway activities in our Branch area which can be emailed to pete.gurney@waterways.org.uk (Please note there is a 35MB limit for emails with attachments sent via this address). The copy date for the next newsletter will be 15th October 2025, for publication in November.
Advertising
Lichfield Lines is posted or emailed to about 320 Branch members. It can also be read and downloaded by anyone from the Branch website pages. If you would like to publicise your waterway related business to our members, and others that read the newsletter online, we can offer advertising space at the following rates:
Full Page - £20 inc VAT per issue
Half Page - £10 inc VAT per issue
Please contact the editor to discuss artwork and layout. By advertising you will help to sponsor IWA's charitable activities and reach potential customers who are all committed to the waterways.
The IWA has a range of corporate members some of whom offer discounts to members. The discount details can be found on the IWA website at https://waterways.org.uk/benefits
Corporate members in our area are
Lichfield Cruising Club 2000 Ltd
Stafford Boat Club Ltd
Longwood Boat Club
Ashby Canal Association
Truman Enterprise Narrowboat Trust Tamworth Cruising Club
Ashby Canal Trust
Lichfield & Hatherton Canals
Restoration Trust
Canal Transport Services Ltd
River Canal Rescue Ltd
Ash Tree Boat Club
Countywide Cruisers (Brewood) Ltd
Elite Furnishings
Waterways World Ltd
Birmingham & Midland Marine Services
Midland Chandlers Hargreaves Narrowboat Trust
Norton Canes Boat Services Ltd
Lakeland Leisure Estates Ltd
Stafford Riverway Link
Please mention the IWA when contacting any of these Corporate Members.
Your Committee
Chairman
Tel: 07808 846434
Lichfield Branch
Email: neil.barnett@waterways.org.uk
Treasurer
Tel: 01785 255101
Email: sue.gurney@waterways.org.uk
Secretary & Planning Officer
Tel: 01889 583330
Email: phil.sharpe@waterways.org.uk
Volunteer Coordinator & Navigation
Tel: 07808 846434
Email: neil.barnett@waterways.org.uk
Membership Officer
Tel: 01283 713125
Email: adrianwedgwood1941@gmail.com
Member
Tel: 07847 470112
Email: derek.beardsmore@waterways.org.uk
Social Secretary
Ex Officio: Region Chairman
also Branch Sales (non-committee post)
Tel : 01543 491161
Email: helen.whitehouse@waterways.org.uk
Non-committee posts
Newsletter and Website Editor
Tel: 01785 255101
Email: pete.gurney@waterways.org.uk
Walks Coordinator
Email: clive.walker@waterways.org.uk
Social Media Editor
Email: Richard.curtis@waterways.org.uk
Branch Contact Address
Email: lichfield@waterways.org.uk
Neil Barnett
Sue Gurney
Phil Sharpe
Neil Barnett
Adrian Wedgwood
Derek Beardsmore
Position vacant
Helen Whitehouse
Pete Gurney
Clive Walker
Richard Curtis
Lichfield Branch
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