i used to work at Weston Point as the Customs Officer when it was a busy B.W. port. We had 14 ships " in charge "from foreign ports" in dock between Runcorn and Weston on one day in the late 1970s. Sad to see it as a land storage depot rather than an "inter Model Hub" that Eddie Stobart publicised when they took the lease from BW but things change. I have passed through with a boat twice from the Weaver that way some years back, there used to be two electrically operated swing bridges to get through to the outer basin. Just before the lower swing bridge is the inner basin gate holding the Weaver level back. You passed through to the outer basin and the inner gates closed then they ran down the level, took about one hour to make a level with the MSC,. The outer gates the opened onto the MSC. This was a daily occurrence depending on shipping. The outer gate to the basin was always closed after traffic as a safeguard to the Weaver levels otherwise everything was on one gate which was seen as unsafe ( as it is now). When the lessee took the lease from BW people told me ( hearsay, towpath talk, could be wrong , just what I heard,) that the lease said that they must maintain the navigation for boats to and from the Weaver at 24 hours notice from BW if required due to Marsh Lock problems. Soon after the lovely hexagonal lock keeper huts ala BCN at the locks were flattened and the outer lock gates to the outer basin were seen to be back and the outer basin was at MSC level allowing silt in from the MSC. Nothing has gone that way for it is said 12 years now . Maintenance as per lease, couldn't possibly say ???