LICHFIELD RESTORATION'S FUTURE IN THE BALANCE?

摘要

Alocal authority came close to jeopardising the Lichfield Canal restoration with a decision to press ahead and authorise a housing development scheme making no provision for canal reinstatement - but a last minute deferral of the decision has thrown a possible lifeline to the restoration project by giving all parties time to get together and discuss a way forward. The issue centres on a road junction involving the Lichfield Southern Bypass and two local roads, which will become the main access to the new Deanslade Park housing development. This junction is right next to where the diverted canal will one day pass through (its original route having been blocked), but local authority planners recommended Lichfield District Council to approve Taylor Wimpey's application to build the housing scheme without providing a new canal bridge and associated channel works alongside the bypass. The Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust saw this decision (which would add at least £500,000 to the eventual cost of restoration) as a "betrayal" of the Council's own obligations and policies towards the canal restoration, a potential "show stopper" to future reopening, and legally flawed - and announced its intention to seek a judicial review.