At the annual ‘Good, Bad and Ugly’ awards hosted by Chester Civic Trust this year – an event with a little humour held to commemorate a year in tourism and promotion of the city, IWA Chester and Merseyside Branch was honoured with a special award for the role it played in the awarding of the status of Inland Heritage Port to the City. The IWA team, led by John Herson, played a major role in the achievement of the first such award in the UK. The Civic Trust was especially pleased that the work helped to raise the profile of its old port area, describing it as “an unappreciated part of Chester.“
IWA Chester and Merseyside Branch saw this new award, which was sponsored by (amongst others), The Government-backed National Historic Ships organisation, as an ideal way of contributing to good maintenance and protecting the historic environment.
Jim Forkin, chair of IWA Chester and Merseyside Branch, said “Britain in the early part of the 20th century abandoned and lost too many of its historic waterway assets, and even with the growth of public interest in waterways we still have to restore and protect what we have left. This Historic Port scheme is an excellent way of showing to the public and the powers that be, the needs for both protection of remaining artefacts and vigilance in the face of any new developments in these environments.”
