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If this was darn sarf....


jonathanA

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Leeds & Liverpool Canal
Starts At: Bridge 130B, Manchester RoadBridge
Ends At: Bridge 130E, Finsley Gate Bridge
Up Stream Winding Hole: After Bridge 137, Lob Lane Bridge.
Down Stream Winding Hole: Before Bridge 130B, Manchester Road Bridge.

Monday 12 November 2018 08:00 until Tuesday 18 June 2019 17:00

Type: Navigation Closure 
Reason: Repair


 

Update on 07/05/2019:

 

We are sorry to report that there have been further delays on site to repair the canal bed and embankment at Finsley Gate in Burnley. Our contractors are working 12 hour days to get the canal re-opened as quickly as possible. As previously stated, we have faced many challenges such as issues with the amount of silt, the constraints to the site and required repairs to the offside wash wall following a collapse. All of this has contributed to the works taking longer than anticipated.

We are currently re-lining the canal bed and completing repairs to the off side wash walls.

We know this is not the best news to hear but we’re working hard with our contractors to re-open the canal as quickly as possible.  We hope that navigation will be open on 18 June and will keep you fully updated on progress.

Again we apologise for the inconvenience this has caused.

 

I’m not a crt ‘knocker’ and seems a little unlucky but...... come on 

 

fortunately we moved past the planned closure in November only to be hit by water shortage based restrictions and now we have this seemingly never ending  stoppage along with guess what ... restrictions due to water shortages again on the higher reaches of the L&L 

 

thank god we moved when we did  its really rather poor

 

as I say generally supportive of CRT but this doesn’t seem good .....  I’d be hopping mad if my business was anywhere on the skipton to Blackburn stretch of the L&L

 

rant over 

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We are a bit worried about moving Kennet as we are booked to appear at the Burscough Heritage Weekend on the 22nd, and this follows on from not being able to to Burnley last year because of the water shortage. 

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Why not get them to crane her out, and put her back in west of the stoppage? We're a bit sick of hearing "sorry but. . ." from CRT. We know they inherited a poisoned chalice from that bunch of incompetents, British Waterways, but they've had it for a long time now, and there is no sign of a willingness to seriously consider looking after the Leeds & Liverpool canal properly. Further, there is no interest at high level in accommodating the historic boats of the canal, and I can't escape the conclusion they'd rather we just buggered off. Doesn't stop them collecting our money,though; and reminding us "licensing does not imply a right of navigation".Rant over.

 

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59 minutes ago, DRP said:

Why not get them to crane her out, and put her back in west of the stoppage? We're a bit sick of hearing "sorry but. . ." from CRT. We know they inherited a poisoned chalice from that bunch of incompetents, British Waterways, but they've had it for a long time now, and there is no sign of a willingness to seriously consider looking after the Leeds & Liverpool canal properly. Further, there is no interest at high level in accommodating the historic boats of the canal, and I can't escape the conclusion they'd rather we just buggered off. Doesn't stop them collecting our money,though; and reminding us "licensing does not imply a right of navigation".Rant over.

 

I don't understand why you say that CaRT don't have much interest in historic boats  when they give you a very generous discount on your licence fee. Other non historic boaters are subsidising your passion to show off your boat.

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4 hours ago, Flyboy said:

I don't understand why you say that CaRT don't have much interest in historic boats  when they give you a very generous discount on your licence fee. Other non historic boaters are subsidising your passion to show off your boat.

He said 'accommodating' the traditional historic craft of the canal, which is entirely different to having interest in them. And by the way, not all historic craft qualify for the discount, and whatever your prejudice, they do provide an attraction to the public and are a very large part of the reason that canals exist. 

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49 minutes ago, BWM said:

He said 'accommodating' the traditional historic craft of the canal, which is entirely different to having interest in them. And by the way, not all historic craft qualify for the discount, and whatever your prejudice, they do provide an attraction to the public and are a very large part of the reason that canals exist. 

Sorry but you misunderstand my post. I do not have any predudice against historic boats, quite the opposite, I would like to see more historic boats on the system.  What I was trying to get over to DRP is that all boat owners pay a licence fee and he gets a discount but moans that CaRT take his money and doesn't want his boat on the system and doesn't maintain the L&L. The fact that there is a serious stoppage on the L&L affects every boater in that location. CaRT have stated that the contractor is working 12hrs a day to fix it. When it's done the water losses on the L&L will hopefully be much reduced.  DRP will just have to accept the situation like everybody else and accept that CaRT are doing the best they can to maintain the L&L.

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"they give you a very generous discount on your licencefee. Other non historic boaters are subsidising your passion to show off your boat."

 

There clearly is never going to be a meeting of minds here, as revealed by these remarks.

 

The historic boat discount is not particularly generous; and it is an odd bit of logic to claim that it represents a subsidy paid for by other boat owners.

 

There are approximately 19 thousand boats on the system, and around two hundred historic boats receiving discount.If Flyboy thinks his licence fee would be lower should all those two hundred disappear, he is living in a parallel universe.

 

Fortunately, we won't be sharing a lock any time soon.

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14 hours ago, Flyboy said:

 'Other non historic boaters are subsidising your passion to show off your boat.'

 Reading this statement does hint at prejudice and its hard to draw any other conclusion. 

 

9 hours ago, Flyboy said:

Sorry but you misunderstand my post. I do not have any predudice against historic boats, quite the opposite, I would like to see more historic boats on the system.  What I was trying to get over to DRP is that all boat owners pay a licence fee and he gets a discount but moans that CaRT take his money and doesn't want his boat on the system and doesn't maintain the L&L. The fact that there is a serious stoppage on the L&L affects every boater in that location. CaRT have stated that the contractor is working 12hrs a day to fix it. When it's done the water losses on the L&L will hopefully be much reduced.  DRP will just have to accept the situation like everybody else and accept that CaRT are doing the best they can to maintain the L&L.

I'm happy to be corrected, but i took from his post the very real issues relating to the system in general that affect older, deep draughted craft. These include dredging of both channel and mooring and overhanging vegetation, which are very problematic in many areas.

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Absolutely right BWM.Depth and vegetation are problems for historic craft throughout the system. With the exception of a short section just outside Leeds,the Leeds & Liverpool is pretty good on the Yorkshire side, thanks to a major dredging programme a few years ago, but on the Lancashire side, from Foulridge to Wigan, it is between not very good and shocking.We spent half a day two years ago, getting off a mudbank in the middle of the canal under a wide bridge, just outside CRT's own yard at Burnley. The absence of permanent lock keepers means that paddle gear stays broken for years, and silt behind lock gates goes similarly unattended, until we get stuck.( Modern "wide beams" don't need the gates to go right back, because their beam is not 14ft 3ins ). As regards getting disgruntled when the canal is unusable, it should be borne in mind that we have a somewhat restricted cruising range, made more restricted by lack of foresight on the part of British Waterways.

The Lancaster canal is inaccessible, despite the fact that it is a broad canal, because some fool at BW thought, when they built the Ribble link, that a 12 ft access lock would be good enough, and we can't access the other northern barge canal, the Rochdale, because when an office block was built across the top of the locks in Manchester, nobody thought to ensure that the pillars that support the building were sufficiently widely- spaced to allow passage of a barge-sized boat.

 

It could be argued that we could just put the boat on a lorry and take it to some other waterway, but that would rather defeat the purpose of having it.

 

We don't see boating as an opportunity to "show off" our historic boat, but we do try to let people see what their canal was for when they don't already know, and if they do already know, the joy on their faces at seeing a "proper boat"again, wipes away the annoyances of CRT and idiots who think they are subsidising our boating.

 

On the subject of the Kennet, I really don't think it would be too much to expect for CRT to crane her out and move her round the stoppage. The Kennet is the L&L Canal Society's boat. The volunteers work extremely hard keeping her in tip-top preserved condition, travelling to a programme across the canal, enhancing various canal festivals and providing a much looked-forward-to resource.I would stop short of suggesting that the rest of us should receive the same treatment, but seriously believe  that Kennet should be the exception.

Edited by DRP
forgot to put the last bit in
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On 09/05/2019 at 22:44, Flyboy said:

Sorry but you misunderstand my post. I do not have any predudice against historic boats, quite the opposite, I would like to see more historic boats on the system. 

 

They should build more of them, in that case. Don't you think? 

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