Shop staff support canal restoration project

A LICHFIELD shop’s staff have been helping to shape the future of the city’s canal restoration project.

Workers at the Three Spires Shopping Centre branch of Seasalt Cornwall, the national women’s clothing and accessories retailer and its outlet shop at the Heart of the Country, took on the task of interviewing visitors to Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust sites to discover users’ motives and views.

This information is important in helping LHCRT to understand what visitors are interested in, to inform the trust’s future plans and is vital to its funding applications.

Part of Seasalt’s sustainability mission is to provide all its employees with one day extra paid leave to undertake volunteering hours in a way of giving back to the communities where they live.

Two members of staff from the Lichfield shop surveyed people using the Fosseway site in September, two pairs from the outlet interviewed visitors to the Fosseway again and also Borrowcop Locks in October, and another pair from the outlet were talking to people at Gallows Reach on November 5.

Several years ago, Seasalt staff carried out planting on the canal route and its CEO and several senior directors accompanied a local manager for a day helping to create the footpath at Gallows Reach.

LHCRT chairperson Chris Bull said: “The fact that these volunteers are so experienced and skilled in peoplefacing work makes them ideal for this task. We are most grateful to the lovely folk of Seasalt.”

PHOTOS: LHCRT Lichfield Canal route visitors Graham and Wendy Edmondson give their views to Seasalt worker Jane Cook. The couple, who have been living in France, were visiting a brother in Lichfield before moving to Lincolnshire.

Seasalt’s Donna Walker interviewing Linda Wright, a regular visitor to the Lichfield Canal towpaths.