From the Chair

The visit in October of Dr. George Greener, Chairman of British Waterways, has yielded the results we hoped for. In the last issue of CUTTINGS I wrote:

"As a newcomer to the Sankey, and with little fore-knowledge of what he would be seeing, Dr. Greener's impressions of the Canal and its potential were eagerly awaited. He was impressed. He was also impressive. For the Sankey to be restored, the people who own it, that is, the three Local Authorities need to see the value of spending time and energy on the project. Dr. Greener provided that motivation."

Dr Greener went back to his Board and told them what he had seen and heard, and our Local Authorities' representatives went back to their offices with a fresh awareness of the value of canal-based regeneration, and, particularly, that the restoration and extension of the Sankey Canal could undoubtedly deliver economic benefits to their areas.

Things have moved quickly on since then. Perhaps because they are actively pursuing a regeneration scheme already which involves the Sankey - their "Eastside Project" (CUTTINGS, Summer 2002), St. Helens has taken the lead this time, and Marc Cole, their Head of Economic Development, set to work immediately. Dr. Greener had offered to host a follow-up meeting, and that offer was enthusiastically taken up by Mr Cole, who arranged an impressive list of people for British Waterways to invite.

The result was the very enjoyable and productive cruise aboard BW's trip boat from their Northwich Head Quarters on the River Weaver via the Anderton Lift to the Trent and Mersey Canal. Peter Keen's account of this is given below. It could not have been more successful - as I hope will be shown when I write next time of the next meeting in February. By then the brief for the study into the economic feasibility of restoring the Sankey, and extending it to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, will be available. It is hoped that the group will go on to commission the study, and the process of restoring the Sankey will have taken another forward step.

David Long, Chair, SCARS

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