Memorandum submitted by The Lapal Canal
Trust
The Lapal Canal Trust shares the concern of
other waterway restoration trusts and societies at the precipitous
withdrawal of British Waterways from the Cotswolds Canal Partnership.
It will probably be several years before our
own restoration project will require the establishment of a formal
partnership with the two local authorities and British Waterways.
Thus we are not at present looking for the active participation
of British Waterways but in the meantime we have reason to believe
that we have the informal support of the West Midlands Waterways
Management.
We do however need to establish informal partnerships
with the two local authorities, Birmingham City Council and Dudley
Metropolitan Borough Council and to persuade those two bodies
that the reopening of the Dudley No. 2 Canal (the Lapal Canal)
between Halesowen and Selly Oak) is a credible proposition. That
task will be all the more difficult if they perceive that British
Waterways and DEFRA are not totally committed to the extension
of the inland waterways network by means of both restoration and
new canal projects.
The Lapal Canal Trust
March 2008
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