Lichfield Branch

compared with the current £52.6m per year. At the level of spend on operating, maintaining and repairing waterways reported by CRT for 2021/22, IWA estimates that with an average grant reduction of £12.6m per year, the funding cuts would mean:

• being unable to do winter maintenance on 586 miles of waterway

• being unable to operate, maintain and repair 156 miles of waterway

• that 50% of the spend on reservoirs will be unfunded.

Mr Etheridge said that the renaissance and popularity of the waterways is due in no small part to the work of tireless campaigners and volunteers over the past 75 yearsplus, but that could soon be consigned to history.

“FUND BRITAIN’S WATERWAYS” BIRMINGHAM CAMPAIGN CRUISE

IWA has joined forces with over 50 other organisations in a major campaign to attempt to improve the funding for all our precious waterways. Details of this campaign can be found on the IWA website or just by Googling “Fund Britain’s Waterways”. The campaign cruise at the Mailbox in Birmingham City centre, is at noon on Sunday, 13th August 2023.

If you would like to be part of this momentous occasion, please come along by foot or by boat to lend your support. Volunteers are also required to assist with marshalling the fleet, please contact ivor.caplan@waterways.org.uk if you can help with this. Boat entry is free but please register your intent to attend by completing a boat entry form https://waterways.org.uk/support/ways-to-get-involved/events/fund-britainswaterways-birmingham-campaign-cruise (in order to assist the planning) or email fbw.birmingham@waterways.org.uk.”

Venue for Public Meetings

Your Lichfield branch committee has recently been in discussion about our monthly public meetings, because since the Covid pandemic, numbers attending them haven’t returned to the pre-pandemic levels.

It may be that people are now out of the habit of going out, but we also feel that the parking issues at our current venue (Martin Heath Hall) might be a factor, something which has been mentioned to us on a number of occasions. Namely the shortage of parking spaces due to the other activities going on there as well as it being so dark in the car park, both of which might be putting people off going.

Some of the other activities in the building are supposed to finish at 7pm but often over-run slightly, and this is what causes the parking problem, so for the September to November meetings we are going to begin at a slightly later time of 7.30pm for a 7.45pm start, by which time a lot more parking spaces should have become available