Portfolio of Evidence presented to Fiona Bruce MP

On June 19th /20th 2010, the IWA Stoke-on-Trent Branch had a sales stand at the Middlewich Folk and Boat Festival. Meanwhile, the Trent & Mersey Canal Society were doing a ‘Lock Wind’ at the Big Lock. The previous day, whilst finalising the petition, we discovered that we were about 100 short of a thousand signatures, so the T&M team were tasked with making good the shortfall, which they did during Saturday. On Sunday morning, these were added to the petition spreadsheet so that the whole Portfolio of Evidence could be presented to Fiona Bruce MP after she had attended the Church Service in the marquee. Alison Smedley MBE (IWA Stoke Branch Secretary) accompanied Fiona to the Branch Stand where she was presented with the Portfolio in one of the branch Friendship Bags.

IWA presents Fiona Bruce MP with Cheshire Locks evidence

The text which was part of the Portfolio is reproduced below. In addition, we gave her a printed copy of the Spreadsheet and showed her the actual documents with the signatures from which the spreadsheet had been compiled.

The Cheshire Locks Campaign – Taking the Heartbreak out of the Cheshire Locks

The Cheshire Locks are a landmark the world over. The Cheshire Locks Campaign aims to improve and restore the historic flight of ‘paired’ locks, a unique feature of the Trent & Mersey Canal on its route from Kidsgrove to Wheelock and through to Middlewich. Once busy with cargo carrying narrow boats, plying between the Potteries and the Cheshire Plain and onto the ports of the north-west, the steady succession of locks was known as “Heartbreak Hill” by boatmen who were often exhausted by the climb. Today the canal is enjoyed by many different communities who use it for walking, fishing, cycling and boating.

A local team of the waterways enthusiasts has been working on the project for the last year, recording the condition of the locks and the surrounding waterway heritage and environment plus undertaking engineering investigations of one of the derelict locks near Church Lawton with volunteer colleagues from the Waterway Recovery Group. A partnership has been formed between IWA Stoke-on-Trent branch, Trent & Mersey Canal Society and British Waterways, which has met with representatives of the councils alongside the Cheshire Locks to explore how improvements might benefit each community. A bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund will be put together later this year.

Already, support for the Cheshire Locks Campaign comes from many sources: canal lovers, boaters, 160 walkers, 150 local residents, and 30 cyclists as well as over 300 members of the public who attended last year’s National Waterways Festival. In addition to over 150 people with Stoke and Crewe postcodes, over 80 other areas were represented nationwide, plus support from Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Netherlands and the USA, showing what a valuable, international attraction we have here in South Cheshire.

The Cheshire Locks Campaign was launched in the Spring of 2009 with the aim of gathering evidence in support of improved maintenance of the flight and reopening as many of the currently closed locks as feasible. A year later, this first task has been completed with a thousand signatures in support.

This evidence was gathered at a number of events, as well as through this website and the distribution of 10,000 leaflets. The events included:

  • The Northern Canals Association Spring Meeting 2009. The 25 signatures included many respected canal society officers and national figures in the waterway movement – the National Chairman of the Inland Waterways Association and five past Chairmen.
  • The Inland Waterways Association Western Region AGM and the Trent & Mersey Canal Society AGM – 30 canal enthusiasts and activists.
  • The Etruria Canal Festival 2009 – 35 boaters and enthusiasts in charge of various events.
  • Middlewich Folk & Boat Festival 2009 and 2010 –
  • 17 people are known to have signed up after reading articles in various canal magazines.
  • The Inland Waterways Association National Festival held at on the River Soar in 2009 – 303 members of the public who visited the Trent & Mersey Canal Society’s stand signed a petition in support of the campaign aims.
  • The Save Our System campaign event, held beside lock 51 on the Cheshire Flight, on May Day 2010 – 112 walkers, boaters and residents signed a petition in support of the event and the Cheshire Locks Campaign.
  • During a working party held at Lock 47 in April 2010, 202 walkers, boaters, residents and volunteers signed a petition in support of the national “Save Our System” event and the Cheshire Locks Campaign in particular.

Many people also signed up after these events on the website after reading our leaflet. Altogether, 164 more signatures were gathered via leaflets and entries on the website. At the start of the Middlewich Folk and Boat Festival 2010, a total of 918 signatures had been collected. By the end of Saturday, this figure had risen to 1005.

We also included a copy of the quotes which we had gathered from the responses at an early stage of the campaign and feature mainly boaters.

We soon realised the importance of working with the local canal-side communities, as shown by the many walkers, cyclists and residents who signed up in support as they went past our working party and display. Many of these people knew very little about the canal and the current funding difficulties. There was less opportunity for them to record comments. Many were happy with the condition of the towpath on the upper part of the flight, but mentioned how much worse it was lower down towards Wheelock. Also, in passing, several mentioned the relatively very poor condition of the towpath alongside the Macclesfield Canal. The Macclesfield Canal Society are working to improve this too.

Roger Savage,
Campaign Co-ordinator.

19th June 2010.

 

Making further use of the portfolio

Given the present political and economic position of the country, with a new Coalition Government and a question mark over the future organisation of British Waterways, it is difficult to see a quick outcome for the Campaign. In due course, we propose sending copies of the Portfolio to the Management of British Waterways and to local councillors and officials – and indeed to anyone who we feel would be able to help take the project forward. Suggestions are always welcome, via our contact page.