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Canal and River Trust are planning to demolish the buildings marked 1 & 2 on my overview image (see below) in January. These are steel framed buildings which constitute part of the collection of structures on this site and are a valuable asset to the completeness of this unique waterway site. Canal and River Trust are saying the buildings are unsafe and a risk to the public, this we believe to not be true as similar near identical buildings in the same state have just been refurbished by Canal and River Trust in what remains of the Brentford wharfs at the southern end of the Grand Union Canal and are now known as "Brentford sheds", however the site in Brentford although originally larger than the one in Birmingham is now very incomplete whereas the Sampson Rd site is complete and represents the complete period history of the waterway function in this area. Ariel view: This image shows the complete area of Sampson depot rd with both the early and modern buildings, little has been lost apart from the infilled canal arms (marked 8). The site has examples of early wharf buildings (1,2,3 & 9) and the latter 1930's modernisation build (marked 4,5 & 6). Most of the 1930's buildings are totally intact and even retain their electric unloading cranes at the wharfage doors. The site presents a fully intact example of how canal carrying developed from the earliest days until the present. It is also a example of a early mechanised fully integrated transport system bringing together road and waterway transport. At the west end of the site is a steel framed covered dock which has been allowed to deteriorate this is what CRT want to demolish. They claim it is dangerous! Recent pictures: They also claim "it has been marketed" with no takers, just where it was advertised they couldn't say, certainly not in any waterway publication I am familiar with. There are obvious uses for this structure within the boat industry and I cannot believe there would not be a taker. To make matters worse there seems a divide of interests from one end of the grand Union Canal to the other! Davies & Brithers of Wolverhampton erected these steel framed building for the Grand Union Canal Co in the early 1930's both at Brentford and in Birmingham, most of Brentford has gone but look what CRT allowed to happen to the same structure in Brentford, this is now known as "Brentford sheds" and is seriously good looking, why cant this happen in Birmingham?? Brentford sheds The Sampson rd site is complete in the main, only a lock cottage (marked 7) on the overview and the cement silo (replaced with boaters services) have gone, to remove the covered dock building is sacrilege. The CRT development team is headed by one Cheryl Blount-Powell at Northwich (01606 723859 Cheryl.blount-powell@canalrivertrust.org.uk), she is adamant that this structure is dangerous and has no historic value. She clearly showed a complete lack of understanding of the site when I met with her in 2012 to assess the site. A report she commissioned by Grover Lewis Associates did not properly investigate the heritage value of the site and missed out or overlooked many principal points. Our own Ray Shill has produced a report on the site which fully assesses the true value of everything which is there. This report together with a request for full listing of the whole site has been lodged yesterday with English Heritage together with a request to have a "spot listing" undertaken in regard to the warehouse and covered dock immediately at risk. I do not know whether listing of this site will be granted but if we don't try we never know. In this case CRT needs to be taken to task, they are out of order, clearly taking no appreciation of our waterway heritage of which so little remains. One other thing CRT have failed to do is to inform us what they intend to do with the site that makes removal of this structure so urgent. If you care about waterways heritage please tell CRT what you think rather than just adding to this thread, direct responses would add weight to the already heavy effort being made to stop this latest blight on the waterway heritage. Thank you, Laurence Hogg