Hatherton Canal - Restoration

Restoration

The idea of restoring the canal was first developed in 1975, as a result of legislation requiring planning authorities to produce county structure plans. The West Midlands structure plan included the concept of the restored canal as a linear park, and included a bypass to avoid the section destroyed by opencast mining. Further threats to the route from the proposed Birmingham Northern Relief Road led to the formation of the Ogley and Hatherton Restoration Society in 1989, after the Inland Waterways Association held a rally at Pelsall to highlight the plight of the canal. The Society later became the Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust, while the relief road became the M6 Toll motorway.

In 1995, motorway development again threatened the route, when plans for the proposed widening of the M6 motorway made no provision for the canal where the two crossed. The Trust had produced several papers which had been submitted to the planning enquiry for the road. The Trust continued to negotiate with the agencies involved in the construction of the M6 Toll motorway, even though the cost of providing navigable culverts was likely to be between £2M and £3M, but when agreement was finally reached, the Trust raised £150,000 to pay for a culvert under the A5/A34 roundabout, and the main culvert under the motorway was funded by the government.

The canal is now part of an active restoration project. As a result of a feasibility study, carried out between 2004 and 2006 by the consulting engineers Arup at the request of British Waterways, the proposed new route for the Churchbridge bypass would have run through new locks to a new junction at Grove Basin on the Cannock Extension Canal. However, this route proved to be unacceptable for a number of reasons, including the fact that the Cannock Extension Canal is a designated Special Area of Conservation, because it is colonised by a rare variety of floating water plantain. A second feasibility study, completed by Atkins in 2009, has now identified a route which would join the Wyrley and Essington Canal via the former Lord Hayes Branch instead. This route would help satisfy environmental concerns, be preferable to local landowners, and reduce the number of new road bridges needed.

Atkins have estimated that the cost of rebuilding the canal, including construction of the new section to Lord Hayes Branch, will be £44.1 million. Although the route is slightly longer than that to Grove Basin, the cost is £4.6 million less, as the Grove Basin route involved a long cutting through land contaminated by spoil from Wyrley No.3 Colliery. Both of the proposed routes incorporate the new culverts under the A5 road and the M6 Toll motorway.