trust and Douglas Barwell who had joined the Midland's branch with this in mind, took charge of the project of restoration. Local campaigns emerged with the threats to various canals, including the Oxford and Kennet and Avon. An all-party parliamentary committee was set up with 30 sympathetic MPs becoming honorary members of IWA. A fight to save the Stroudwater Navigation was lost in Parliament, although 112 MPs voted against it. In March 1955, a Board of Survey reported and recommended the downgrading and possible disposal of 771 miles of waterway parts including some like the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, that had already been abandoned and closed to traffic. In response, IWA advocated a National Waterway Conservancy to look after all the waterways and pointed out that it is cheaper to restore and use waterways than to eliminate them. A non-party parliamentary petition was also organized. Slowly opinions were changed so that by the autumn, when the annual BTC bill was placed before parliament, the announced measure was not included and the chair of BTC told MPs that he regretted that the board had not had a more independent basis. The campaign to save the Kennet and Avon Canal intensified. A group supporting its restoration had set up independently after the argument within the association but were now brought back within IWA. A 22,000 signature petition to the Queen was brought from Bristol by water, though parts of the canal had to be traversed by canoe to get it through. In March 1956, a clause in the BTC bill to close the K&A was defeated. A new committee of enquiry was set up and the IWA invited, amongst others, to give detailed plans for the viability of the different waterways, which put considerable strain on an organisation which didn't at the time have any permanent staff and whose financial affairs were in some disarray. Christopher Clifford, a JP made the presentation. At this stage another dispute arose within the organisation when Aickman pushed to seek incorporation as a company limited by guarantee. At the time there was no chairman of the council, as Aickman had been persuaded to keep only the position of founder and vice-president after the last crisis, and he himself was ordered to rest by his doctor at this time. Although the motion was eventually passed, and the IWA was incorporated in 1958, several branches broke away from the