Lichfield Branch

Aqueduct for dog exercise, that raised heritage and noise concerns, has been approved, although with amended plans that reduce the car parking near the canal from 14 to 4 spaces and time limits that prevent overnight use.

On the Trent & Mersey Canal at Great Haywood the land opposite the junction has been a grassy meadow since the canal was built 250 years ago. The iconic Junction Bridge 109 on the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and both canals are Conservation Areas. But a proposed housing development on the field would significantly damage the setting of the towpath bridge at this historic junction. It is outside the Settlement Boundary for the village and contrary to the Local Plan Historic Environment policies and the Neighbourhood Plan, and should therefore be refused.

Part of the site is currently being used by CRT’s contractors Kier as a base and for loading materials to resurface the S&W Canal towpath between Great Haywood and Milford, but this is only temporary.

At The Mossley in Rugeley plans for housing on a garage site and scrub woodland would be largely screened by retaining existing trees along the towpath. One-way traffic lights are proposed over the narrow canal bridge but there has been no consideration of the heritage impact of signals on the bridge, or of pedestrian safety over the steep-sided hump-back canal bridge due to the increased traffic.

At Barton Marina both the block of motel units on the north side of the basin and the extended conservatory on the front of The Waterfront public house have been approved.

By the Coventry Canal at Heath Gap, Fradley the design of a large house we objected to has been changed from an overbearing mock-Tudor design to a lower profile Georgian / early Victorian design. The smaller, regularly spaced, arched top windows and a lower roofline are better in keeping with the canal’s vernacular architecture and the adjacent cottages.

At Polesworth the draft Neighbourhood Plan references the history and heritage assets of the Coventry Canal, but we suggested it should also aspire to fund