CIO Canal Foundation

Not a charity name. The legal entity that runs the bypass.

CIO = Canal Infrastructure Operations. Constituted as a foundation because foundations are permanent — they don't move, they hold the weight. The CIO is the operator of the canal corridor. The CIC continues as the trading entity. The two are bound by a single doctrine: every dPRN minted passes 7% Covenant first, then splits — and the canal-routed tonnes carry the uplift the road-routed tonnes cannot.

£450 base + uplifts. Locked. Not phased.

The bypass row carries no number because it isn't a price line — it's the structural reason the three uplifts above can be claimed honestly. Without the canal, only the £450 base survives audit. With the canal, every uplift is defensible.

The canal is the bypass. The bypass is the moat. No one can copy this without rebuilding their entire logistics chain.

Every competitor moves plastic on diesel trucks. Every diesel truck contaminates the carbon claim of the material it carries. The CIO routes verified tonnes along the canal corridor — water-borne, electric-towed, or barge-staged from Unit 18 (DY5 2UA, ~10 minutes' walk to the cut at Delph). The result is the only plastic stream in the West Midlands that can be sold with a no-diesel-contamination guarantee attached.

Clean the canals. Put bins on the canals. Sponsorship-funded.

Canal remediation is not a side-project. It is the visible proof that the bypass is being maintained as an asset rather than merely used as a route. The programme has three components, sequenced so each one funds the next.

• Phase 1 · Towpath & surface cleans Volunteer-led, CIO-organised cleans along the BCN main line and the Stourbridge / Dudley feeders. Output measured in tonnes recovered, photographed, and minted as a separate "remediation tonnage" stream — a public-facing stream the grant funders can audit on a single page.
• Phase 2 · Canal-side bin network · CIO marker · sponsor-funded Branded bins placed at lock-keepers' cottages, bridges, marinas, and visitor moorings. Each bin carries the CIO Canal Foundation marker and a sponsor plate. Sponsorship pricing tiered by foot-traffic. Sponsors get the brand placement; the CIO gets the asset and the recovery flow; the canal gets clean.
• Phase 3 · Skim-and-net work on water Surface plastic recovery using small electric craft. Coordinated with the Canal & River Trust where their permits are needed. Recovered material enters the same verification pipeline as the door-to-door bag stream — same SHA-256 weighbridge, same Truth Ledger entry, same dPRN treatment.

The option to charter — or rent — sections of the corridor.

Filed as strategic optionality, not current capability. The Canal & River Trust grants charters and short-term moorings against defined commercial use. The CIO is structurally eligible: a foundation, a constituted purpose, a verified operational site at Unit 18 with direct canal access, and an environmental remediation programme already in motion. Three doors are open:

The Dudley anchor is the unlock. The site sits a short walk from the cut, with canal frontage that the CRT recognises as legitimate operating geography. The same site is already the verified weighbridge address — the canal door and the road door are at the same building.

The Dinner-and-Dance. The transport. The referrals. The CIO is the funder. The CIC is the trading hand.

This is the visible side of the foundation — what the canal-uplift revenue funds when the dPRN stack returns to the foundation through the 7% Covenant. It is also the surface that grant funders will most recognise (Lottery Awards For All, National Lottery Community Fund, West Midlands Combined Authority community grants, council social-value funds).

• Programme A · Pensioners' Dinner-and-Dance A nice venue. A proper meal. Live singers when available; otherwise a DJ. Funded end-to-end by the CIO. Open to all OAPs in the immediate corridor (Dudley, Brierley Hill, Stourbridge, Lye, Smethwick, Oldbury) — extended to Wolverhampton and Birmingham as the food-bank network sequences in (per MD-318 §06).
• Programme B · Transport via coach services Door-to-venue coach transport arranged for guests who would otherwise be unable to attend. Hired coaches with named pick-up points across the corridor — Dudley, Brierley Hill, Stourbridge, Lye, Smethwick, Oldbury — and standing pick-ups at the partnered nursing homes (Programme C). Removes the single most common barrier to community attendance for older and isolated guests in one stroke. Funded by the CIO out of the canal-uplift share.
• Programme C · Nursing home partnerships Standing partnerships with named nursing homes inside the corridor — the CIO covers transport and meals; the home identifies guests who will benefit. Builds a clean referral path that grant funders can verify in writing.
• Programme D · Vulnerable-person referrals to the meal stream Referral form for older people, isolated households, or vulnerable adults who want to receive the 40-meals-per-tonne stream that the dPRN funds. Simple intake — name, address, contact, source of referral. The food-bank network (MD-318 §06) is the delivery mechanism. The CIO is the convening and funding entity.
• Programme E · Get-involved pathway For older people and community members who want to participate rather than receive — towpath cleans, sponsor-bin stewardship, dinner-and-dance volunteering. Listed openly so the door is visibly open.

The CIC trades. The CIO operates and funds. The grant application is built from both.

The CIC has been touched up — it is the trading hand, the verification hand, the dPRN-minting hand. The CIO is the foundation hand: the canal operator, the remediation host, the community funder, the social-impact face. The two entities sit either side of the 7% Covenant.

To be spoken on opening day.