Meeting Notes West Midlands Waterways Partnership Meeting 2nd February 2017 Fazeley Waterway Office, Peels Wharf, Lichfield Street, Tamworth, B78 3QZ Attendees Actions Peter Mathews CMG PM Ian Lane IL Steve Burt SB Richard Preston RP Vaughan Welch VW Viv Biggs VB Graham Fisher MBE GF Stephen Hardy SH John Harris JH Ewan Hamnett EH Victoria Spires VS Naomi Rose NR Apologies Laura Shoaf, Phil Bateman MBE, Bashir Ahmed, Ivor Caplan, Yvonne Gilligan, Ben Seal Not attended Len Cresswell Welcome and Apologies Apologies were acknowledged. Meeting notes and matters arising from last meeting. The meeting notes were reviewed and agreed. Declaration of Interest There were no new declarations. Chairman’s Report PM advised that we will be discussing the works that are planned for Edgbaston Tunnel during the meeting. Has recently had a meeting with the Chamber of Commerce in Coventry and will also be meeting with the leader of the City Council as there is a lot of work that needs to be done in Coventry Basin. Mentioned that the Black Country Chamber will be inviting senior people on a trip in April, PM to keep us informed. Business Planning At next meeting we will be looking at Business Plan to see how it can be consolidated, along with a new plan for Community Engagement, and need to ensure that we keep each other informed on what we are doing so that we don’t get any crossovers. IL advised that we have a lot of documents which we could do with streamlining into one document for the Partnership, giving clear guidance on what needs to be done, with the BP to sit behind this. Community Engagement PM advised that the Partnership will be looking to take on more work with Community Engagement which is currently mostly looked after by the Waterway, although we will need to ensure there is not too much overlapping. SB asked if we could go round the table with an update on what everyone has done during the month like we used to. Website/Twitter GF demonstrated what is already on the web and how we can build on this and discuss how we can all contribute. Social Media especially Twitter is the way forward as emails are seen to be coming old fashioned. VS gave a presentation on the CRT website and advised that the main way for us to give information is via the interactive maps, we have already started to develop other maps on our site including walking maps, and are looking to develop a cycling map. The digital team rely on information coming in to them and they feel that they can work more closely with the Partnership and Waterway on this. Search functions can be done by postcode or area, where there is a feed into all sorts of info local to that area: i.e. events, canals, meetings, volunteer opportunities, stoppages etc. SB queried whether articles on the website are time relevant, VS advised that once the event has finished it automatically drops off, and any news stories will have a published date on them. When using the interactive map, you can choose which layers you want on or off to make this relevant to your search, for any events that you search for in the Events Calendar these will be pulled through into the local page i.e. West Midlands making it relevant to your area. Social media is extremely relevant and great for connecting with other people and this is a great way to build up relationships. NR provided some statistics that showed CRT has over 200,000 followers on Twitter and at the end of 2015 59% of the population were using social media, with most people’s usage averaging 2 hours daily. There has been a big increase in people using this instead of contacting the Customer Services Team as it is easier than having to phone through and wait in a queue. GF thinks that we are in a position to feed the web and he is happy to collate information from the Partnership, although the content will need to be justified so that we don’t overload and slow down the system. JH mentioned a recent discussion he has had about walking trails and asked if we already have any on the web. GF advised he has managed to link up some walks with the Royal Geographical Society and although it is a bit sparse at the moment the team are looking to build on this as a lot of the search criteria is for walks. GF also mentioned a great website that links into this is ifootpath.com EH enquired if the walks can link in with other things i.e. hospitals, unit’s, loops etc. Press PM stated that it is important to get more coverage especially as WM is the biggest area and we need to be publicising as much as we can. SH advised that the WM has had some good press coverage. January was the highest scoring of the year for the West Midlands in terms of both the score and the number of individual episodes of coverage with the waterway being 8% ahead of its target score to date. Amongst the stories coming up this month are: Fradley open weekend (18th/19th Feb) Winter works continuing Scouts volunteering on the Stratford Canal Volunteers clearing a feeder at Acocks Green We’ll be trying to sell-in a feature on our Heritage Working Boat volunteers PM asked if we can get more coverage for the Partnership which SH agreed he can do and is keen to hear of any initiatives and any stories that are out there, going forward he will be having a monthly meeting with PM and GF. SB mentioned that people still question who the Partnership are and what they do and feels that the Partnership does need more mention in the press and this needs to be pushed forward. GF recognised that as well intentioned as these stories are he has been redistributing to the local media within the Black Country to give us even wider coverage. AOB and date of next meeting SB attended the 3rd public meeting regarding Bradley Arm with 150 people in attendance. There has been opposition to the proposals from a few vocal people, however SB feels that he has allayed a lot of fears especially regarding property prices. The local group are expected to take over shortly and the partnership will be handing this over so hopefully CRT can take a step back. One of the attendees at the meeting has taken some lovely panoramic photos that VS has asked to be sent to her for web. SB to SB also mentioned that he recently attended a local youth group talk. send on RP advised there are more towpath improvements in Black Country with an additional 1.5 million scheme in place including part of the Bradley section. Titford Pools European application is still being worked on. Also there is a new drainage scheme planned which should bring lots of community engagement for partnership to get involved in. RP met with Midland Metro who are continuing with an extension from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill which will cross the canal 5 times. VW mentioned that the closure of M5 starts in March, and wonders how it will affect waterways, although it could create an opportunity for CRT, working with Highways England to address outfall from the pools. PM advised he has a good contact at highways and could arrange a meeting if needed. EH brought up the subject of physical activity and the reason that people get active is because we make it easy for them. Green Travel District was set up to try and get parts of Birmingham working differently with a network that would involve using canals. On the subject of diabetes, it is about engaging people as currently the Health Service is only really just getting on board, with 10% population in UK having diabetes with 25% in Balsall Heath, it is a lifestyle choice, smoking, drinking, overeating, no exercise- and the goal is to use physical activity to get people to change their lifestyle. David Unwin, Champion for Diabetes Activities aims to get 10% of practises in Birmingham to change the way they do things, and deprived areas in Birmingham should be key focus. GF mentioned that Chance Glass works has no mention in the property report this month, and has asked Cheryl Blount-Powell to include next time even if nothing to report as they are very close to announcing some news. GF advised that he does some radio broadcasts and does voiceovers for Black Country – If there is an event that is non-profit and community orientated then it is eligible to be promoted via BCR. This makes it ideal to promote CRT/WMWP events in the Black Country area. These can be submitted via the Black Country Radio website free of charge once they have been accepted. GF to send details including link to VB. He also advised that the Stourbridge Walks will soon be updated onto CRT website, and has recently update RGS Walk. VW is a boater representative on the Trustees Council, and has spoken to W & B Canal Society regarding the changes to Edgbaston tunnel who advised that they have no objections as long as there is some protection in place, although 2 of the delegates have strongly gone against the change. IL to update on this below. He also expressed concern about concentration on Bradley and thinks that the Partnership need to consider the effect.