A boost for the Lichfield restoration

THOUGH it was possibly seen as if the Lichfield restoration had fallen by the wayside, this isn't so.

For the Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust is getting £116,200 to help with its work.

Match funding

This comprises £41,200 from the European Regional Development Fund together with match funding of £75,000 from HS2’s Community and Environment Fund.

But it comes with a provision—that the money be spent to create an ecology park.

This is to make habitats for wildlife on the Darnford Brook wetlands, but the trust will get the advantage that it will be able to extend the waterway during the work to water the canal to the nearby lift bridge.

Aquactic habitat

This will take place in February with contractors undertaking the work, but its purpose at present is to make it an aquatic habitat.

It is here that a further section of the canal is being restored where the proposed HS2 crosses the waterway.

This is the restoration that had 'the bridge to nowhere' over the M6 toll road that was finished 20 years ago to eventually take the Lichfield & Hatherton Canal over the motorway.