Lichfield Branch

improvements to the very muddy section of towpath between bridges 53 and 54 (Market Street to Tamworth Road) and to the access at Steam Mill Bridge 53.

On the Ashby Canal adjacent to Trinity Marina in Hinckley, the design of the apartment blocks we had objected to has been amended. The height is reduced to 3 and some 2 storey units of brick and timber cladding with balconies and regular pitched roofs, giving a much improved appearance. Whilst we had no further objection, details of the canalside landscaping were still needed.

Adjoining the Anglesey Branch of the Wyrley & Essington Canal at Brownhills, an Outline application for a large development of warehouses and industrial units between Barracks Lane and the A5 would ruin the open rural outlook from the canal. Although it was a proposed site in the draft Black Country Plan this has since been discontinued and a new Walsall Local Plan is yet to be written, so the Green Belt status of the area remains and the application should be refused.

The HS2 (Crewe – Manchester) Bill Select Committee has been hearing evidence in recent months on the subsidence risks to the promoted route through the Cheshire brine field. A Ground Risk paper by HS2 in March admitted that Billinge Flash, on the Trent & Mersey Canal between Middlewich and Broken Cross, is the most subsidence affected area on the route. IWA is concerned that construction of the proposed high embankments and viaducts here could reactivate the subsidence and cause collapse of the canal. In written evidence to the Committee, IWA has suggested a series of questions that they should ask of HS2 on this and other matters not so far covered or insufficiently explained. The submission also proposes a local diversion of the route to the east, avoiding the major subsidence hazard around Billinge Flash, and avoiding the need for 2 of the 3 crossings of the canal, with significant cost savings. This alternative route would take it further away from Oakwood Marina with its liveaboard boating community, and reduce the visual and noise impacts of both construction and operation on the heritage, wildlife and recreational corridor of Trent & Mersey Canal and its users.

Phil Sharpe Planning Officer