Quaffer

Worth another BUMP for a quick review of unscheduled stoppages on these two threatened canals during September. HNC Eastern side 1E - 16 E finally reopened on 13/9 ,having been closed since 31/7. Then closure 4E - 6E 20/9-23/9. Tree down 17E - 18E 28/9 -30/9 Rochdale Lock 82 blown cill closure 9/9-24/9 Lock 11-16 closed 1/9-12/9 Lock 8/9 Closed 5/9-7/9 and 23/9-25/9 Through savigation still very challenging .Unbelievably so far in October no reported problems.

A BUMP of this thread is warranted given ongoing problems. August saw the complete closure of the eastern side of the HNC from 1E to 16E from 31/7/24. Golcar aqueduct seems the main problem and grouting work may have worked with news of possible reopening coming this Friday 13/9/24 . Given the problems as Golcar were know in 2023 and with through passage only really feasible in April,May and July so far this year, its a very sad story. Just for good luck the western side was closed from 24W to 32W for 16 days in August too (13/8-29/8/24 ) .I bet passages through Standedge must be well down this year.Last passage through Standedge is on November 1st ,after which through passage on the HNC stops for 5 months. The situation on the Todmorden part of the Rochdale improved after a very rough July ,with "only " 11 days of closure at those locks in August but further east navigations was only possible through lock 7 during August from 12th August , then being halted at 5 &6 from 21/8-29/8. Again it feels like closure in all but name as a through route.

I filled out the same form and attached my photos so not sure what has happened .Maybe contact the IWA office ?

So another month has passed and how have these two troubled canals fared ? Looking at the CRT unplanned stoppages notices for the HNC,through navigation beyond 14E was possible from 28th June until July 2nd when another unsheduled stoppage stopped through navigation until 12th July (10 days) since when there have been no problems.But only 30 navigable days from May 3rd until July 12th ,a period of 70 days. I notice on the provisional winter stoppage list that a lot of work is planned on this troublesome eastern section,so lets pray that make the canal more robust in 2025. The Rochdale Canal,having been well behave for May and June has been having real problems west of Todmorden ,starting with closure from 27th June,a brief opening 5th July-7th July but then closure since then at Locks 21-30 apart from a brief window 10/7-14/7.So just 6 days out of 34 days. Down at the eastern side between Locks 5,6,7 navigation has been closed since 26th July. All very sad. .

I'm up to 24 now ,having completed the Silver Propeller ticks back in October 2020 I 've since added West Summit Lock ,Coventry Basin and this year Carpenters Road lock and Standedge East portal .Progress has been slow ,hopefully if the Stroudwater opens soon I can have a trip up there for another tick.

Just has a week on the HNC but got defeated by an unplanned stoppage at Golcar Aqueduct for the contractor to refix the sheeting they had installed only a week previous. A four day stoppage waiting for the contractor to turn up on site meant the booking at Lock 1E would be missed leading to a further five days waiting there for the next opening and I needed to get back to work. So reversed back through 2 locks and half a mile to a winding hole then tried to get through Standedge on the second slot last Friday which was cancelled because of the canoeing event.With a full pump out ,that was the end of a holiday with friends as crew. Looking back at CRT stoppages and notices pages for the HNC since end March ,there have been a number of quite long stoppages for repairs that take a lot less on other canals namely 31/3-3/4 Lock 29E 3 days 12/4-17/4 Diggle Flight 28W 5 days 23/5-28/5 Tree down Lock 13W 5 days 7/6-10/6 Lock 29E 4 days 24/6-28/6 Locks 13-12E Golcar 4 days where I got stuck. Besides the 25 days original stoppage at !E -12E due to Golcar Aqueduct leak .3/5-28/5 I have asked CRT for some response and copied my issues to several very senior Trust people and will await their reply. It's a wonderful,beautiful navigation and I wouldn't want to put anyone off but there are real issues and a default position from CRT to close navigation and seemingly take quite a while to sort issues out. The Rochdale seemed to be behaving itself although I have noticed some water issues after Tod up to Summit recently.

There were around 40 people in CRT owned and branded canoes,most single but some double .Each canoe also had a CRT portable search light for safety and no doubt staff in the service tunnel in case of medical issues.The rescue electric craft was manned and ready for action.Waiting at the Diggle end were I assume about the same number as the canoes are stored and maintained at Marsden . So that event could have meant revenue of £4,400. (40x£55x2) Theses canoes passages happen on Fridays,Saturdays and Sundays once a month and again could bring in £13,200 per month.I have no idea of the CRT staffing costs ,but am sure the net revenue figure to CRT coffers will be a lot lower. Standedge is closed to narrowboat traffic anyway on Saturdays and Sundays but it is the Friday closures once a month I am unhappy about. Hopefully if interest from canoeist drops off maybe these events can be returned to just Saturday and Sundays but that's probably me being too optomistic. No the event is in CRT canoes,there is a charge (£55 single,£100 double canoe) but no need for the canoeist to have a canoe licence.

I was at the Marsden end on Friday morning to witness the first of these events but not because I am a keen canoeist but rather that I was the first narrowboater to be denied passage to Standedge because of this monthly event.CRT did honour the single passage booked before this event was announced and that narrowboat entered at the allotted 8am time.CRT allow two westward boats passage on Fridays so I assumed that as the slot was free when I arrived at Marsden after I was forced to turn around and return westward due to the most recent navigation closure at Golcar Aqueduct (more about that on the HNC & Rochdale thread later) that I would be allowed the second spot. However CRT have a policy to deny narrowboat tunnel passage on the Fridays of these canoe events (June 28th,July 26th ,August 23rd ) meaning for each of those three months 4 narrowboats are denied passage,a loss of 8% of the available slots . CRT simply make it look like those slots are booked on their website which is rather sneaky and they didn't mention any of this impact in their press releases. Nice to know where the priority lies.

HNC open today at !E to 12E so an unscheduled stoppage of 25 days.....lets hope that's the last this year until the winter stoppages start although somehow I doubt it.

That's encouraging,the more it get used the more CRT will feel an obligation to keep this navigation open.Let's hope the water supply holds out.

Thought I would bump this thread ,the HNC has now been closed since May 3rd,due to problems between Lock 1E and 12E. An update will be issued on Friday 24th May so it will be 22 days and counting. Lets keep an eye on the amount of closures there are on this canal throughout 2024,the impression I got from last year is that the number of days when the canal was fully navigable was limited ,does anyone have accurate stats for 2023 ?

Ian, I missed this debate and some interesting points were made on the thread. However as the Grant Funding Documents are not in the public arena and with these two waterwayus classified as remainder waterways, I don't feel as confident as you. CRT may never officially close either waterway if there is such a liability but with continued localised closures at various location this will lead to a situation that through navigation is impratical ,a de facto closure in all but name . A general lack of planned preventative maintenance will then lead to yet more unplanned closures at other sites which in a roundabout way justifies much less spending on PPM if very few boats are using the canal in question.

I am fearful that the direction of travel for these two canals is towards navigational closure by CRT and on the "use it or loose it" basis I'm navigating both in June,with all booking in place. However already there is a closure ufn on the HNC between Lock 1E and 12E with the CRT notice implying at least a two week closure.This follows an earlier closure on the Diggle Flight of several days. At present the Rochdale is open ,although Lock 8 is difficult to operate apparently. Are there any local folk on the forum who can provide further information,especially about HNC Lock 1E ? I was told that the University of Huddersfields computer department situated on the towpath above this lock has a water abstraction agreement with CRT to cool their hardware but the water is then returned to the HNC below Lock 1E leading to a sustained loss of water above the lock.However the CRT notice talks about stop planks being in place at Lock 1E implying the problem is between the stop planks and the lock chamber. Any thoughts ? IMHO if both the CRT Regional Director and Mr Parry as Chief Executive had Unplanned Navigational Closures as one of their Key Performance Indicators,there may well be faster and more effective action taken on these issues. Are there any CRT Council members on this forum who can explain how these gentlemens "feet are being held to the fire" ,it would be a tradegy to looses these navigations,and although money is tight at CRT surely this should be of far greater prority than some of the activities that CRT are currently funding.

CRT do indeed have all the locations of Visitor Mooring on their internal GIS system and a lot more such as the location of permanent towpath moorings,offside moorings,backwater moorings and Winter Moorings. These are used by their Data Collectors and any Volunteer Mooring Rangers to record boat index sightings using the systems GPS coordinates. Craft Licencing will then use the data to see whether any further action is necessary. It would be helpful if the Visitor Mooring locations were shown on the Canal Reference Map,maybe someone on here connected with the Navigation Advisory Group could raise this request with CRT. If a boater is concerned that they may get into a dispute with CRT about their mooring,I've always found the best solution is to contact Craft Licencing to discuss the issue,rather than wait for the enforcement process to kick in.

Also the closest mooring for the impressive Bartons Arms