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Early Notice – preventative action on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal This year March, April and June have received significantly lower than average amounts of rainfall. As a result, the reservoirs have been drawn down and have not experienced normal rates of refill. Consequently, three of the five reservoirs supplying the summit of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal have holdings below their long term average for the time of year. Analysis indicates there is between a 25% and 50% risk that the reservoirs supplying the Leeds & Liverpool Canal will not have sufficient water to supply the canal throughout the main boating season. As a boating business operating on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, please find below details of the actions the Canal & River Trust is planning to take to minimise disruption to navigation on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal during the anticipated dry spell. The primary objective is to avoid closure for as long as possible and at least until after the beginning of September. We are acting now with these early restrictions in order to achieve this objective and because analysis of the reservoir holdings show that without action there is a moderate risk that closure would occur before September We are initially trying to ensure the Canal is ‘put safely to bed each night’ and thus the wastage of water through any mis-use of the infrastructure (paddles left open etc…) will hopefully be reduced. This will start off with a fairly soft approach via intensification of our existing nightly inspections by the Operations team. Locking up/ overnight closures, from 8pm (I.e. Last boat into the flight at 7pm) until 10am, of critical sites will start from mid-July, starting with the Summit section (Barrowford Lock 51 to Holme Bridge lock 30), whilst maintaining soft approach elsewhere. N.B. 10am is our intended opening. However, if the Operational staff can fill / top up before 10am then we will open before 10am, but similarly if it takes until 10:10 or even 10:30 as a result of the extent of the dewatering/ flight draining then that’s when the canal/ flight will reopen. We cannot currently rule out the possibility of overnight closures happening across a wider area than the summit section (this may be necessary from around mid-August if existing weather patterns continue as current), and we are keeping this under review. In addition to the works around ‘put the canal safely to bed‘ we are continuing our works on high priority defect repairs, especially in the areas of leakage reduction and lock paddle/ gate repairs. We are aware that the necessity for these requirements is not welcome news but we trust you can see that we are taking appropriate and timely preventative action to minimise disruption. Please can you all help by ensuring that your staff and your customers are fully briefed of the situation and that your own operation as well as your handover process for holiday boat hirers emphasises the importance of not wasting water and ensuring that lock paddles are closed. We will keep you updated on further developments and will provide links to water resource information as the position progresses. A briefing meeting can also be arranged. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require any further information. Best regards Richard Richard Delves Business Boating Manager (North) Canal & River Trust Fearns Wharf Neptune Street Leeds LS9 8PB