For the past few years, the badly leaking locks through Stone on the southern route from the summit at Stoke have been constantly reported to CRT but nothing has been done. Because of the differential depths of these very early locks, and of course lack of dredging, Yard Pound in the town, most of all, runs low. Yard Lock is far deeper than the others so it's sorry state is a major factor in all of this.
This year, or certainly before I left on my travels in early June, a substantial feed from the Caldon reservoirs has mainly kept up with the traffic and leakage, a situation for which we were grateful but unsustainable.
Within weeks of my leaving, by chance,8 I met up with Richard Parry and Julie Sharman, CRTs Chief Operations Director.
She appeared appalled that she didn't know of this and agreed that water supplies would run scarce if nothing was done as I predicted. Repairs to Yard Lock is at last to be tackled over the winter.